


Bells Pound

by TardisCrew



Category: Doctor Who, Tenth Doctor - Fandom
Genre: Adventure, Doctor is not himself, F/M, Mind Attacks, Trials
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-10
Updated: 2018-09-14
Packaged: 2019-06-08 12:07:03
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 18
Words: 40,977
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15243051
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TardisCrew/pseuds/TardisCrew
Summary: What kind of planet is named Bells Pound? The kind Rose Tyler hates and that is unusual because she loves visiting planets but something is not right about this place.  And now the Doctor is acting strange and she has to figure it out before it’s too late.  For someone used to laughing in the face of danger she’s afraid, very afraid.  Must she protect herself from her beloved Doctor too?





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [mrsbertucci](https://archiveofourown.org/users/mrsbertucci/gifts).



> Warning! This chapter includes non/con behaviour from the Doctor. I do not want to upset anyone so please take note.

Rose didn’t like this planet. It was named Bells Pound. What kind of name was that? As soon as she stepped on the planet she hated it. She couldn’t put her finger on the problem but it just gave her the creeps. And that was saying something considering how many godforsaken, rubbish planets the Doctor had dragged her across. Whether swampy disasters or hot dust bowls she usually found something to like, if only because of the Doctor’s insatiable curiosity and unflagging enthusiasm. But not this planet.

It was a beautiful enough place with a purplish sky, fluffy clouds and blue craggy mountains in the distance. There were flowers and grass in the capital city where they were but from the moment she stepped out of the TARDIS she sensed some kind of mental pall, a darkness emanating from everything. It was driving her mental. Her first shiver of fear had come when she had shared her misgivings with the Doctor. He’d brushed her off! Fair enough he had done it in his typically enthusiastic way, throwing his arm around her shoulder but still it was odd. He never brushed off her concerns, especially when they were on a planet he had never visited before. He knew you could never take things for granted and was always inclined to take her sense of things very seriously, not to mention her safety. He hadn’t even scanned their environment which he usually did with fervour always on the lookout for new discoveries or new dangers. 

The other concern she had was the manner in which they had come here. He had used the randomizer switch to chose their destination. It didn’t escape her reasoning that, based on past experience, the TARDIS often took them someplace where the Doctor was needed. And that almost always spelled trouble. From the first day there had been trouble, terrible trouble. 

Naturally he had enthusiastically embraced the local fare but he had not even scanned the food and drink for safety which was odd. Even though he had cast iron stomachs and a system that could shrug off most poisons he was not immune to all dangers. After all simple Aspirin could kill him! But most notable was the fact he hadn’t checked the food for her and that was very odd, alarming even. So she had begged off eating anything on the planet glad she had brought water and food with her in her knapsack.

Watching his unnerving, out-of-character behaviour she couldn’t help but contrast it with their recent intimacy. Their relationship had changed two weeks earlier when he had almost lost her. It had been a heart-stopping close call and he had clutched her to his chest and she could feel his hearts thundering. When he finally loosened his grip on her he took the biggest risk of all his lives. He kissed her and she had devoured him. It had been a desperate pairing fuelled by fear of loss but she knew it may have been the spark but their feelings for each other ran deep and she loved him more than life itself. She knew he loved her too when he had cast aside his fear of her short life and proposed they attempt to bond. 

And somehow, against all odds it had worked. She had been able to bond with him almost as though it was meant to be. It had been an incredibly fulfilling experience. She remembered the Doctor’s joy when he joined her mind and found her able to bond with him but that wasn’t all. The Doctor was trembling when he told her that her life had been extended and her ability to bond with him all stemmed from her exposure to the vortex. Their joining had been enhanced tremendously by that knowledge. And the sex had been simply incredible. The Doctor was insatiable and astonishingly skilled. His natural exuberance and curiosity were evident but as a Time Lord his strength and stamina had him at her constantly and if she was physically too tired he gave her elaborate mental landscapes within which to bring her to completion. Finally he was so beautiful naked. Rose chuckled inside thinking of the popular expression ‘large and in charge’. He was! His Time Lord nature made him delightfully aggressive and experimental but he was always driven by his desire to please her, to pleasure her. He was completely open, too, walking around naked at the drop of a hat. Now that they were bonded there was no need to hide, nothing could be hidden anyway. Because of this new reality their relationship had deepened and solidified even though it had only been two weeks. She would love him always and die without him.

When they had returned to their ship that first night he’d been brooding, almost like he was annoyed with her. She’d prepared supper for them, especially since she was starving but he wanted nothing to eat. She’d eaten alone and prepared for bed. Later that first night things got terrifying when he’d slammed open their bedroom door, strode to their bed and stripped the covers off her. The slamming door had woken her and she struggled to take in what was happening. She saw he was naked, erect and his black eyes were cold, whatever was looking at her was not him. She called his name hoping to snap him out of whatever had possessed him. She tried to reach his mind but it didn’t work. He grabbed her ankles pulling her towards him and ripped off her knickers, lifting her from the bed, turning and slamming her against the nearby wall. For the first time in two weeks he ignored her needs, thrusting into her, tearing her most tender flesh. His pounding thrusts continued with no thought for her readiness or her pleasure. The slickness of the sexual act came not from her natural lubrication but the blood from her torn flesh. He climaxed with a groan biting her shoulder then pulled out of her and left her to slide down the wall in a heap. He strode from the room without a backward glance.

Rose stared into the darkness of their bedroom her entire body shaking uncontrollably as she struggled to control her fear and stop the internal screaming. She was very badly shaken and found herself panting in the throes of high anxiety. A long while later she stood shakily and took a shower washing the dried blood from her thighs. Returning to the bed she sat in the darkness thinking. She had just been raped by someone or something that was not her Doctor. She had to remember that. You just never knew what trials life could throw at you but there was one thing she knew for sure. She would walk through fire before she abandoned him. Someone or something had its grip on the Doctor and she was not going to stand for that. She was going to rescue him. She reached out to him with her mind. Nothing. She could not sense his awareness. Was the Doctor shielding her from whatever had a grip on him so it couldn’t infect her? Or was the Doctor’s mind totally infected?

The next morning she found him in the console room impatient to get going. He grabbed her hand pulling her towards the doors as she reached back for the knapsack she had packed with water and food. Showing no signs of remorse for the previous evening Rose had the impression he didn’t even know it had happened. She had charged her phone and intended to use it to make notes of her observations and take pictures hoping she could figure out what was going on so she could snap the Doctor out of it. He dragged her along but after they got to the city he did not hold her hand for the rest of day two. They stopped at a restaurant where the Doctor ordered some sort of biscuits and the local equivalent of tea. She begged off saying she had eaten on the TARDIS. He shrugged waiting for his order. In full observational mode Rose took in her surroundings. The people were shorter in stature than humans, bipedal as the Doctor would say and generally their faces had large expressive eyes almond shaped and angled upwards on their faces as were their eyebrows. Their faces ended with narrow pointed chins. The overall effect lent them a peculiar sardonic look. They all had straight hair cut shoulder length with some colour variations among them but none were blonde. And they emitted a darkness just like the planet. Most wore tight leotards that had a sheen. Thus exposed she observed some seemed male, some female and some in between. Eunuchs perhaps? 

As all food and drink was prepared in full view of the patrons Rose observed a peculiar activity as she watched the servers fluttering their hands in an odd pattern over the food with their eyes closed and their lips mumbling. It reminded her of a magician she had seen at a birthday party she’d attended as a kid. He’d made similar motions over a top hat conjuring up a rabbit which she and the kids had found spellbinding. Perhaps it was some sort of ritual or religious blessing. She resolved to find out about their belief system. But more worrying than all this was the fact the TARDIS was not translating for her! Almost giving herself away she gasped realizing something she should have thought of before. Her blood ran cold when the unthinkable occurred to her. If the Doctor was infected, if his mind was compromised, would he, could he have infected the TARDIS? As soon as they returned she had to find out without risking her own mind.

Eventually they left the restaurant and Rose noticed everyone watched them leave which gave her the creeps. The Doctor wandered aimlessly through the city as though he was looking for something. Every now and then he would stop and cock his head as though listening to something. He rarely spoke to her limiting his contact to orders to keep up and stop loitering. Sometimes she would ask him a question about the sights but his answers were perfunctory unlike his usual fulsome explanations.

Eventually they returned to the ship. She offered to make his supper but he refused again turning his back on her to fiddle with the console controls. As she walked down the corridor she had an idea and hoped it would work. First she stopped in the infirmary and found the sleeping draft the Doctor had told her could put him to sleep. Then she hurried to the galley and started making the one thing he could not resist - banana bread! If anything could get to him this would be it. She made it with extra banana and chocolate chips so it would be extra moist. The smell of it baking never failed to draw him to the galley. She popped it in the oven and while she waited for it to bake she made tea. Depending on how things went she hid a dose of the sleeping draft ready to pour in his tea. She wanted no repeat of the previous evening’s events. Just as she bent to remove the loaf from the oven, she heard him coming down the corridor. Gawd she hoped this would work.


	2. Chapter 2

As he entered the galley Rose focused on making things as normal as possible. Cheerily she said, “Hiya Doctor. I made you some banana bread and tea!” She bustled around setting out plates and cut them a slice of bread, his much thicker than hers. Out of the corner of her eye she saw him dutifully sit at his spot. She served his slice, noting,”I made it special for you so I hope you like it!” She sat taking him in.

With considerable relief she noted his eyes were no longer cold and distant. They were soft and brown and he was looking at her affectionately.

“Thank-you Rose. I do enjoy your banana bread. It’s my favourite.”

“I know silly, that’s why I made it!”

Her heart was singing when she saw his lopsided grin. She didn’t know how long it would last, this clarity, so she went for it.

“Doctor, you’ve been acting very strange ever since we set foot on this planet and I’m really scared you’re being hurt and I don’t know what to do to help you,” she stated looking him directly in the eye. “Plus I can’t connect with you and it scares me too.” She touched her temples to make her meaning clear.

Setting down his banana bread he haltingly offered an explanation reaching for her hand, “Rose I’m so sorry for scaring you. Yesterday I was attacked telepathically and my mental barriers failed.” He stared off remembering the sensation and shivered unwittingly.

“But Doctor how is that even possible? Were they that much stronger?” Rose asked clearly afraid of the potential implications.

“No, not that much stronger but that much different. Their telepathy doesn’t enter through the mind but through the autonomic nervous system. You might say they sneak in and before long you don’t even know they’re there. They are different from us, vastly different, maybe even not of this universe.” He took a deep breath and then another bite of the banana bread. Rose got the distinct impression the familiarity of the taste, smell and circumstances helped anchor him.

“They were controlling me physically making me ignore safety protocols with respect to food and drink through my autonomic responses, quite alarming given the fact the nervous system controls my hearts beat, digestion system, sexual responses and basically every automatic system in my body. By the time I realized what was happening it was almost too late. Fortunately as they moved into my brain they were stymied by the way my brain processes time and they couldn’t understand and I think they were afraid. I flooded them with time lines, time anomalies and it was like poison to them. It bought me time to figure out the right kind of shield for you and the TARDIS. I had to be sure they couldn’t get access to either of you through our bonds. I was still battling to get them out of my mind all of last night.”

He took in a shuttering breath and looked at her with anguish. “Rose they felt my desire for you, saw our intimate relationship and experienced the physical pleasure from my memories. They have no such equivalent and powerfully pursued the experience. This morning I woke with blood on me, on my penis. What did I do? Did I hurt you?”

“Doctor, You were trying to save the TARDIS and me from getting infected. It wasn’t your fault,” she whispered.

Squeezing her hands in his he looked her in the eye and asked again, “What did I do Rose?”

Rose knew he wasn’t going to let it go so she tried to keep it clinical. “You woke me and insisted on having sex but I knew it wasn’t you, wasn’t my bond mate. I don’t want you beating yourself up about it Doctor. We have to focus. Can we not just leave this place?”

Looking absolutely stricken he whispered, “I raped you, my Rose. I raped you.”

It was clear to Rose he was absolutely devastated. She quickly moved around the table and hugged him. “Doctor listen to me. You didn’t rape me. They did! I don’t blame you. I knew it wasn’t you. We only have each other and we have to focus on how we get over this and get out of here. Please Doctor.”

Clearly shaken his voice broken he said, “We can’t leave Rose. These beings are using intelligent life forms, including children, from other planets. They’re using their brains to power a massive deception. Everything we see, the sky, the trees it’s all a construct from their minds created to entrap others. Any traveller who gets within a parsec of this planet has an uncontrollable urge to visit. They see a nice planet and decide to land and then it’s too late. When the current brains fuelling this deception die they’ll just get more!”

“Oh my gawd,” Rose gasped. “I knew it Doctor, everything I saw gave me a sense of darkness but now I think it was more like bleakness, hopelessness! But Doctor, to what end? I mean more and more brains to build a deception it doesn’t make sense. What do these beings get out of it?” 

“My clever Rose,” he said giving her his first tentative smile, “the bleakness, it’s the pleas of those entrapped that are embedded in the images they’re forced to project and you are sensing it. As to what these beings are getting out of this, they’re feeding on the brain waves, sucking them dry,” the Doctor explained.

“Oh how awful, how terrified they must be! We have to save them!” Rose said the horror she felt plain in her voice.

The Doctor nodded full of thanks for his brilliant girl. He watched as her natural courage and bravery took over. He could see the questions swirling in her mind.

“Doctor, how come you were still acting weird today if you kicked them out of your mind last night?”

With tortured eyes he explained,”When they were inside me, while I was figuring out how to construct chemical barriers to prevent their access to my autonomic nervous system and while I was figuring out how to shield you and the TARDIS they got a good look at my brain. I gave them pause by throwing time at them but they know my brain is powerful and they want it. It would be a feast for them. Today it took all my effort and concentration to keep up my mental and chemical barriers and keep them out. I would have been hard pressed to have a simple conversation with you.

Rose nodded in understanding. It explained a lot. 

“So why are you back to normal now?” she asked logically.

“My old girl senses these beings and is trying to identify them but since the first night when they had me under attack she has figured out a way to modulate the shields so their brain waves can’t get in, with or without me in the TARDIS. It took me awhile to realize that when we got back today because I was so busy keeping her shielded from me. We will have respite while we’re in the TARDIS,” he explained.

Rose cut another slice of banana bread for him and reached over stroking the TARDIS with relief understanding why she hadn’t been translating. These creatures were unknown to his ship.

“Why can’t I sense you over our bond Doctor?” she asked her alarm and fear apparent. 

“Only because the disguise I’ve created to ensure they don’t detect my bond with you and the TARDIS is complex to construct and I feel it’s safer to leave it in place until we defeat this thing and leave. I’m sorry Rose but even I have limits to how many complex barriers I can construct and control at one time let alone construct and remove every time we return here but I assure you our bond is still whole and I count the hours to it’s restoration.

Rose took his hand and whispered, “Me too Doctor, me too!”

Then a thought struck her, “What were you looking for on the planet Doctor? You were wandering around looking for something.”

“Their control centre, the place where all those minds are enslaved and it’s a good thing I didn’t find it. I wouldn’t have had a chance. Tonight I fashion our protections for tomorrow.

“‘Kay,” Rose said nodding her head while another question welled up, “what about the people Doctor? Who or what are they?”

“My guess is that it’s them, the creatures, but disguised as humanoids. Their outward appearance is a construct I think.”

Rose fished her phone out of her pocket explaining, “I filmed them Doctor doing something with the food.” She toggled to the video and handed it to the Doctor.

Studying it carefully he watched it several times with intense interest before declaring, “Oh this is interesting! If I had to guess whatever they’re doing with the food is probably about chemistry. Could it be a way of changing the food chemistry to make access to the autonomic nervous system easier? Or...” he said trailing off and looking at the video of the hand motions again.

“Or what Doctor?” Rose asked vibrating with interest and pleased her video might be providing them with essential clues. 

“Well,” the Doctor mused, “maybe it’s a coincidence but these hand motions look like the periodic table symbol for copper repeated several times followed by a ‘stop’ hand motion. Hmmm, could they have an aversion to copper? Are they changing the molecular composition of the food? Most carbon based humanoid life forms have copper in their blood with concentrations in some organs like the liver. We need to change the protocol for tomorrow. Before we leave we eat a big breakfast here. It’s the most important meal of the day Rose! Our breakfast is going to include leafy greens high in copper. And we’re going to carry copper objects so we can test our theory. Good work Rose. You may have captured an essential clue.”

“Hang on! Why would beings, maybe from another universe, be using Earth’s symbol for copper?”

He looked at her, his pride in her quite apparent noting, “I can only speculate and you probably won’t like the answer but if the hand motions on the video are using the symbol for copper I am speculating these creatures have mental control over the composition of matter. I’ve seen that before with a species called the Carrionites. They used mnemonics or the science of sound used with structure to create, destroy and control. Earth people saw it as witchcraft but it was science. Like the Carrionites, it’s possible before these creatures can change an element or indeed before they can change matter, they have to name the element in a form relevant to the universe they’re in. The proper naming of things was critically important to the Carrionites. Without it their science wouldn’t work.” The Doctor waited to see if Rose would figure out the implication.

Gasping Rose looked at him her eyes wide with dread. “But Doctor, if you’re right they need the brains to get the right names of the elements and if they’re using the symbol from the period thingy there’s an Earth brain involved!” 

The Doctor nodded feeling her dread at the implications.

“Rose there may be another big clue on this video.”

Despite the not so good news so far, Rose was relieved to see her Doctor’s brilliant mind and inquisitive nature at work. She felt such reassurance to see him back to his normal self. For the first time since they’d arrived she thought they might have a fighting chance of freeing the people enslaved here. Pulling herself back to the moment she responded to the Doctor’s intimation there was another clue in her video.

“Could it have to do with sex?” she asked

“Oh you are brilliant Rose Tyler!” he said his smile ecstatic. 

“Their body constructs and their outfits make their sex obvious but from what little I could glean from my contact with them they do not reproduce sexually so why this body construct? It could simply be because the brains they’ve captured are beings who reproduce sexually so their body constructs are what they know - male and female. But I can tell you their hunger to feed on sexual sensations was voracious. Could it be a weakness we could exploit I wonder? Thanks to you Rose we have two big clues and we’ll be better armed tomorrow!” He grabbed her into his embrace and thanked his lucky stars she didn’t flinch in fear at his sudden exuberant hug. His Rose was brilliant! He was so proud of her.


	3. Chapter 3

An arsenal of protection was on the Doctor’s mind. He was currently analyzing chemical protections, but he wanted to test perception filters too. Then there was copper. He felt it could be used defensively. Thankfully he didn’t have to figure it all out himself. That wasn’t their process when they knew in advance there would be trouble and many lives would be at stake. Sure they tended to be cavalier when they stumbled into trouble and had to make it up on the fly. Needs must and all that. But when they knew what they were up against, he and Rose had become planners and the reason for that was Rose. She was excellent at it and they had quickly fallen into this pattern, one which he valued greatly. Rose had impressive empathy which provided him with perspectives he sometimes didn’t see. But it was more than that because she had an ordered, logical mind combined with an intuitive, gut feel about situations. Her mind had become his favourite place in the universe since they’d bonded and her body...well best not think of that now he thought, especially after last night. He shook his head to refocus but not before he once again thanked his lucky stars and his TARDIS for bringing her into his life. He had to admit to himself that when facing great danger it was reassuring not to be alone like he had been for so many years.

“Doctor, you said they entered your mind through your nervous system and you said you could modify your chemicals like copper to prevent access. However I’m guessing there are limits to that, I mean usually in human bodies if there’s not enough of something you get sick but if there’s too much of something you get sick too right?” she asked her eyes alive with interest and curiosity.

“Right you are my brilliant Rose. My tolerances are broader than a human’s. We couldn’t fiddle with your levels Rose...too risky!” The Doctor fixed her with a stare designed to make it clear he meant it.

Knowing this was a precursor to his insistence she stay in the TARDIS, she moved to distract him first and then she intended to lay down her own markers.

“Doctor, if these things entered your mind, even though it was through the nervous system, they’re still using telepathy or some sort of mental projections right?” The Doctor nodded delighting in watching her reason through what had happened. 

“Go on then. What’s your point Rose?”

Rose studied him ordering her thoughts. “Well, telepathy, no matter how it accesses the brain, has to involve brain waves and brain waves have some sort of electrical signal?” Rose asked feigning innocence in the face of his blatant intention to leave her behind. 

“Yes, just like all brains, low level electrical waves,” the Doctor confirmed.

“Well even on Earth brain waves can be affected by outside sources right? So why couldn’t the sonic interrupt them?”

“I thought of that Rose but there are a couple of unknowns that make me reluctant to take that route. For instance I don’t know if these creatures have separate minds or one hive mind. If their brain waves could be interrupted and if they are a linked hive mind then I could be hurting the captured minds,” he explained.

“Well,” replied Rose twirling a strand of her hair absentmindedly, “what about magnetic waves, don’t they confuse brains. I’ll only say this once Doctor. You are not leaving me behind so we have to think of something!” Her conviction was clear and the Doctor knew there would be no changing her mind.

Remembering something she had wanted to ask she inquired, “Doctor, how come their brain waves only attacked you and not me?” 

“I can’t be sure but probably they go for the natural telepaths first. You’d have been next my luv I’d wager.”

Rose loved it when they planned strategy together and she knew he relied on her and respected her opinions and suggestions. Imagine that, he wanted to hear her reactions to his ideas and he wanted to hear her ideas as well. More than that, he took her views seriously often modifying his plan based on her input. No one was smarter or more clever than him but he had the intellectual honesty to know he wasn’t perfect. She loved that about him. 

Looking up at him she was excited to see him staring off into space and knew he was thinking through an idea. She waited until she saw his eureka moment. “What Doctor? What’s got your attention?” she asked excitedly. 

“Well,” he said, “instead of attacking brain waves I am thinking of a defensive strategy. We could utilize magnetic and electrical fields generated by time varying wave currents of precise repetition, width, shape and magnitude and by incorporating two cyclic expanding and collapsing magnetic fields which generate precise wave forms in conjunction with each other to create a forcefield around us, we could repel those brain waves from even wanting to get close to us.” He rubbed his hands together in glee gifting her with a beatific smile.

Rose just stared at him. She had no idea what he was talking about but she knew he knew how to make whatever gizmo he had just described and she understood he was talking about some sort of shield so she gave him a spectacular smile.

“But wouldn’t our brains be affected?” Rose asked.

“Thought of that my beautiful Rose. “Yes, I so did! We’d need a forcefield with a protective interior followed by an electrical magnetic layer followed by a copper vapour, followed by a time dilation layer.”

“You can do that?”

“Oh yes I can!”

“I believe you Doctor. But what’s the plan? If it’s a hive mind or even if it’s not and we’re dealing with individuals, it takes a plan to capture a bunch of other brains and make them bend to your will right?”

“Oh yes Rose quite right. And what conclusion do you reach from that?”

“It seems clear there must be a leader of some sort.”

Smiling ecstatically the Doctor crowed, “Therefore, Rose Tyler all we have to do is stroll around and we should attract the interest of whoever is in charge because the minions won’t be able to overcome us. It’s the only way to find who we’re dealing with, attempt to reason with them and convince them of the error of their ways. If they don’t stop, at least they will have been warned.”

She gave him a tongue touched smile which never failed to draw his undivided attention. “So,” she drawled, “our plan, our strategy might properly be named ‘The Stick Out like a Sore Thumb Strategy’ yeah?” 

The Doctor looked at her aghast, “Rose you are brilliant but clearly naming things is not your strength! What’s wrong with ‘The Approach Us at Your Peril Strategy’, or ‘The Time Dilation Gambit’, or the...”

“All right, all right,” Rose interrupted with her hands held up in surrender. “Doctor,” Rose asked taking his hands in hers, “is it going to take a long time to make our protection?”

He wrapped her in a hug explaining it would take four to five hours.

“Doctor, you need to get some sleep tonight. Don’t stay away from our bed tonight. Promise?” She had a hand covering each of his hearts.

“Ahhh, I’m not sure Rose. I mean under the circumstances of last night and all, I think you’d rest easier if I didn’t arrive in the middle of the night.”

“Doctor, don’t be daft! You’re my bond mate and if we’re going to take on this strategy and if it goes bad and something happens to us I want my last thought to be how your arms felt around me! Please Doctor?”

He bent and kissed her nose. Quietly he whispered, “Thank you Rose. Okay, I will come by when I finish the devices.”

They separated in the corridor with Rose rising on tip toe to give him a kiss. The challenge ahead was sobering but they had each other and that comforted them. The Doctor was on the way to his labs. As he walked along his thoughts turned to Rose. He was very grateful for her forgiveness and wondered how such a slip of a girl could be so forgiving and make his life so much better, worth living really. Rose made him feel happy and he walked with a bounce in his step because she was in his life. After she healed he wanted to be with her but he was afraid of what her reaction would be if he was honest. If only he had been stronger she wouldn’t have been hurt. A few steps later his bounce was gone and he felt ashamed. He couldn’t mess up now. He had to make sure she was protected. He forced himself to stay on task.

Rose was glad they had a plan as she wandered down the corridor to their room. She knew you couldn’t plan for every variable but if she was holding the Doctor’s hand she wouldn’t be afraid. She knew he would blame himself about what had happened believing if he hadn’t been so weak she would have been spared the ordeal. She also knew he was afraid of what her reaction would be to him when she was healed and they attempted to be intimate again. She didn’t need a functioning bond to know that but she knew it would be fine as soon as she saw his beautiful eyes. When he crawled into their bed later she would hold him and reassure him and eventually when their bond was restored he would know she meant it.

As Rose entered her room heading for her ensuite, the lights came up and she gasped. Every single square inch of available wall space was covered with the number 1756.

Rose stepped back and touched the TARDIS walls seeking an answer from the ship, but their ability to communicate had been compromised because the Doctor had sealed their bond. Her bond with the Doctor had made it easier to communicate with the ship. All she could discern from the TARDIS was the number 1756. Clearly the ship wanted her to remember the number. With her hands on her walls Rose focused on telling her she would remember it. Just like that the numbers disappeared from the walls Wow, the TARDIS didn’t want the Doctor to know this. She was telling Rose but not the Doctor and that meant he would probably become compromised and she’d have to find a way to save him. She felt a chill run down her spine.

Later that night the Doctor slipped into their bed with a good deal of trepidation. Would he scare the hell out of Rose? Almost before he could complete his thought she turned towards him mumbling, “Doctor?”

“I’m here luv,” he whispered.

Rose snuggled into his arms,”Good, I missed you...always smell so good.”

The Doctor held her close for the rest of the night ever grateful for the power of her healing forgiveness.


	4. Chapter 4

The next morning Rose woke taking in his beloved face so peaceful in sleep and then studying his sleeping form praying she would be able to save him. For once she was glad their bond was unavailable to him or he would know the message the TARDIS had given her. At last his beautiful eyes opened and he smiled at her stretching luxuriously. He was happy she had not been frightened of him last night and hopeful she would continue to want him. But he couldn’t help contemplating his shameful and criminal act and his face darkened with self loathing. Rose knew the look and she was not having it. Once again she distracted him.

“Come on, sleepy head, let’s get a shower and have that big breakfast and confront day three on this wretched planet,” she whispered. 

Not wanting to drag her down with his maudlin thoughts he put on a smile. “Now Rose Tyler, that is not the right attitude. We have properly prepared and we’re brilliant together and we’re going to save the captured today. It will be a good day!”

Rose smiled at him and nodded whipping off his blanket mounting a fair tickling attack. Of course the Doctor was forced to retaliate resulting in a rolling mass of arms, legs and laughter. Thus reinforced they headed to the shower, Rose motioning him to go first. She quickly brushed her teeth and slipped off her knickers and top slipping into the shower too. He turned in surprise backing up a step unsure of what she expected of him. Struggling to control his physical reactions to her naked form he decided keeping his gaze on her eyes was his only viable course of action. Of course Rose recognized his confusion and moved to reassure him.

“Ssshhhh. Doctor, just turn around for me and I’ll clean your back. Just relax and let me take care of you and your gorgeous mole. And know this, I am not afraid of you. I adore you and I always will. When I am better which will be soon I am going to expect you to put out big time. Got it?” she giggled. As she ran her hands up his back, over his shoulders and down over his tight muscled ass, she felt him tremble.

“Oh I will Rose Tyler, yes I will. I promise and I look forward to it more then you know!”

She embraced him running her hands forward over his hips zeroing in on his erection taking him in hand and slowly stroking him. She felt him responding as his erection grew and hardened. They both missed the intimacy of their bond but at least she could offer him focused sensation and release. This was all about reassuring him she held no fear of him and would always want him. She moved around in front of him reaching up and running her fingers over his bottom lip. His large expressive eyes took her in reaching to touch her but she shook her head saying, “No need Doctor, this is just for you. Let me do this.” 

She placed a thick towel on the tiled floor in front of him and knelt down on it watching as his cock twitched in anticipation. He knew what was coming and he greatly appreciated this Earth custom Rose had introduced to him. Looking up at his gorgeous form, the warm water sluicing down his body, she saw he was panting in anticipation so she wrapped her lips around the head of his cock flicking her tongue on all his sensitive spots while tightening her grip and stroking him with increasing speed and grip. His eyes always watched her because he found the view added to his stimulation. Gradually she moved her mouth down and back up increasing her suction and flicking her tongue on each pass. His hips were beginning to thrust and he had his hands on her head but he did not push her on him. Groaning in pleasure, asking her to suck harder, his eyelids fluttered closed and his head tilted back as he yielded to the acute sensations she was creating. Gladly complying Rose reached up with her other soapy hand cupping and rolling his balls leaving her index finger free to slide between the cheeks of his ass stroking his perineum and anus. Sucking in air and hissing he exploded, his eyes opening to watch her mouth sucking him, his groan a tale of erupting ecstasy. He stumbled slightly reaching out to the shower wall with one hand seeking to steady himself. His legs were trembling from his powerful spurting release.

Looking down at her he panted out, “There are no words for how good that felt Rose.” He helped her up and hugged her to him. “Thank you Rose,” he whispered and he held her for quite awhile. This Earth woman had become the centre of his universe. There would never be another for him.

Finally wriggling from his embrace, Rose said, “Let’s have the most important meal of the day and go get the bad guys!”

He gave her a dazzling smile and nodded.

Later at breakfast as they sat beside each other sipping their tea Rose had lapsed into silent reflection. The Doctor didn’t need the bond to know she was anxious and afraid. She didn’t know how much she soothed him when facing danger, just by being with him, so he wanted to comfort her.

“Rose luv, you don’t have to come. I can handle this. Besides I would prefer you weren’t in danger. Makes it easier in some ways.” He put his arm around her shoulder.

Rose turned to him with wide eyes and said, “You take that back! Are you daft Doctor? What happened to ‘Rose we’re brilliant together!’. I’ve helped you loads of times and you know it. I would never hide here while you go and face this alone. Yeah I’m afraid but that doesn’t mean I’d abandon you. No way!” With that she stood up suddenly her chair scraping loudly. “Come on, no sense dallying. Let’s get kitted out and get going!”

“Hold up Rose,” he said reaching for her, enfolding her in his arms, “I wish I’d said that in better words. If you don’t think your help has been invaluable to me I’m here to tell you you’re wrong. I love it when you are with me and when we’re apart I count the minutes til I see you again. But Rose you can’t blame me for wanting to protect you. You’re my bond mate and I’m afraid that tendency is here to stay.”

She leaned against him nodding. “Yeah well I feel the same. I want to protect you too ya know.”

“All right then let’s save us some brains Rose Tyler!”

The Doctor fitted her with the shield generator, which looked like a large belt. He showed her how to turn it on and off being sure not to turn it on. He explained they would have to turn off their shields each time they returned to the TARDIS and turn them on when they left the TARDIS. Then he reached for his sonic and set it on the console, fitting his own belt under his suit jacket. With a flash of intuition Rose thought 1756 might be a setting on the sonic and she stepped in front of it blocking his view. Course she knew that it wouldn’t stop him from remembering it if he intended to take it. But Rose got the impression he didn’t recognize it when he set it down. As he turned away from her to swing on his coat, she snatched it slipping it between her breasts in her bra. As she suspected he didn’t come back to get it. He never left his sonic behind and it worried her! Could those creatures have planted the suggestion in his mind to leave it behind? If they had then the creatures were afraid of what it could do. Maybe that was why the TARDIS had intervened. When he turned again to look at her she fiddled with her superphone nonchalantly adjusting her settings.

“Come on Rose Tyler,” he said running up the ramp to grab her hand, “the time is now!” They swept out of the TARDIS on high alert, stopping to activate their shields and then walking toward the town wondering if their protections would do the job. 

“Doctor?” Rose asked, “if our protections work, will you have to put as much effort into maintaining your mind shields?”

“Probably not,” he replied, “but I have to be wary. While we have formidable protections remember that we don’t really know whether they have other offensive weapons at their disposal. So far they didn’t really have to work very hard to almost take over my brain, in fact they did for awhile. I attribute that to their unusual entry through the nervous system. While I will be ready for that next time I don’t know if they have other ways to access my brain. Suffice to say I will be monitoring. That said, I know of no telepathic race in our universe that can break through a Time Lord’s telepathic defences once the attack is identified,” he replied reassuringly.

“Oh, okay,” Rose replied. But she didn’t feel reassured. In fact she felt dread. As she looked over the landscape it seemed darker than before, probably that’s what was causing her sense of dread. Those poor people had their brains captured by these creatures. The Doctor said the darkness came from the captured brains so if it was darker than before was it because they felt dread? Did they know what was coming? Or did they know she and the Doctor didn’t stand a chance? But Rose Tyler didn’t think of turning back and dragging the Doctor with her to safety. That’s not what they did. They helped people so she swallowed down her fear and carried on.

Hyper alert, they walked towards the town conscious of the sound from the path’s pebbles and gravel crunching under their feet.

“Doctor, how far do our shields extend?”

“About 20 feet around us. The shields merge with each other when we’re close. Hopefully we will see these creatures stay that far away from us. Then we just look around for some sort of power source and knock it out.”

She nodded her understanding as they walked into the town’s square. They didn’t see any people/creatures so they headed into the restaurant where the Doctor had eaten. There were creatures here still disguised as humanoids but the reaction to their presence was quite different. As they sat at a table, the restaurant began to rapidly empty and the creatures hands were fluttering around them frantically. You might have thought the creatures perceived them as diseased. Finally only the proprietor was left behind the counter frantically flapping at them to leave.

Deciding to test their shields further the Doctor walked closer to the creature moving slowly in front of it while Rose remained behind it still at their table. Thus the creature was sandwiched between their two shields. It was a calculated risk given the usual reaction of predators when trapped and possibly in pain, still it was probably best to determine their capabilities when there was only one as opposed to a roomful. They both jumped as the creature emitted a high pitched whistle causing Rose to cover her ears in protection. As she watched the creature from behind she was astonished to see it’s disguise breaking down. What she beheld was hideous! This creature was a gelatinous, quivering, grub like monstrosity, it’s body was crisscrossed with blue veins that seemed to pulse and was segmented like a grub’s. It seemed to be secreting some pus like substance from between its segments. Certainly it was gross to look at but she knew from her travels that looks had little to do with understanding and compassion. She had met many creatures that were not pleasant to look at but delightful to know.

She motioned to the Doctor to get his attention. “Doctor, its disguise has slipped back here.”

“Interesting. Hold your position. I want to move closer hopefully we can determine its capabilities.”

He no sooner finished speaking when the creature moved back to increase its distance from the Doctor. As it got closer to Rose it emitted jetting streams of pus at Rose. Her shield sputtered and crackled. The Doctor immediately moved back increasing his distance from Rose.

“Rose, Rose are you okay? Rose?”


	5. Chapter 5

Rose was startled by the horrid spray of green pus from the creature currently lying on the floor emitting pitiful sounds. Moving quickly, signalling her to come to him, the Doctor escorted them outside. He had no desire to cause the creature any more suffering.

“Rose, are you okay?” he asked his concern on display.

Rose shook her head taking stock. “I think so Doctor but I don’t know if the shield is damaged.”

The Doctor started rummaging in his pockets and Rose feared he was looking for his sonic. Suddenly he pulled a glass vial from deep in his pocket and moved quickly to scoop some of the green pus from the surface of the shield into the vile and then stoppered it with a flourish.

“Now Rose, let me have a look at your shield. We’ll analyze this secretion later and figure out what harm it can do.” He whipped on his glasses and looked at her shield closely.

“It seems intact Rose. You feel okay?”

“Yep. I’m good to go Doctor,” she replied.

Smiling at her he asked, “What is your assessment of the creature, Rose?”

“To be honest I’m starting to wonder if these creatures were responsible for entering your mind,” Rose said watching the Doctor nod.

“I mean they seem very primitive. I suppose maybe the chemical goop might have allowed easier access to your nervous system but could they be telepathic? Somehow I doubt it. Or maybe they just softened you up and some other intelligence accessed you through these creatures. And another thing Doctor, that whole restaurant, I think it’s an illusion. Did you notice when everyone left there was nothing on the tables, not a drink or sandwich, nothing and it was the same last time. You were the only person served!”

“All good points,” the Doctor mused. “I did notice Rose and it begs the question, what did I eat and drink? And really I don’t want to think about that too much because, at the worst, it must have been meant to subvert me in some way and at best it was grub food!” The Doctor stuck out his tongue mock gagging with his typical theatrics. But then he turned serious again. 

“Also, I think you would agree the concept of a restaurant is a pretty universal concept so if the restaurant is an illusion, and I think it is, then how could such an obvious part of the illusion have been missed, especially since it was meant to deceive?” 

Rose hopped up and down excitedly. “It’s a clue Doctor. It must be a clue left for us by the captured brains, warning us!”

He had been looking at something in the sky that had caught his attention but he turned to Rose and smiled at her. “Right you are my clever Rose!” Then he turned back to his observations and his mind was elsewhere. She watched him tilting his glasses looking up at something in the sky.

“What do you see Doctor?” Rose asked struggling to see whatever had attracted his interest.

“A perception filter of some sort, perhaps created by whatever is controlling this place. But, if we’re very, very lucky, it’s a back door, compliments of the captured brains. If we’re not so lucky, an invite from the perpetrators,” he mumbled distractedly staring through his glasses at the spot that had attracted his attention. 

Watching him trying to identify the entry point it struck her how easy it would have been with the sonic yet he hadn’t even expressed dismay that he’d left it behind. She felt bad for not offering it to him but only momentarily given how important it might prove to saving him. While his back was turned she quickly reached for it and flipped the dials to the setting 1756 then returned it to it’s hiding place.

Turning her attention back to him she watched him leap up and stay hanging in the air. It was a strange sight as the Doctor seemed to hang with no supports, his one hand looking like half a hand, presumably because he had found some sort of handhold. Rose was once again reminded how fit he was watching him hanging there. Yep he was strong and fit and she couldn’t wait to feel him against her body again. Sighing she knew for now at least, needs must and all that so she returned her focus to the object of her affection who was gazing at her with a knowing smirk.

“Come on Rose, looks like we’ve found a way in!” he crowed. Rose blushed a deep shade of pink and he hooted in amusement. The Doctor saw she had looked at him with lust and he was beyond chuffed. She wasn’t just reassuring him, like in the shower. She still wanted him! It was going to be okay. He really missed sharing her mind and her body.

Hurrying to his side she was pulled up by the Doctor’s other arm until she wriggled into some sort of hole and was boosted the rest of the way through the hole into what appeared to be a long startlingly white, large, round corridor that angled downward. She was able to easily stand with room to spare and did so as the Doctor came tumbling through the hole tightly tucked into a ball. Rose couldn’t help but smile at his theatrical entrance. 

Peering down at him she said, “Watcha doin’?” She offered her hand to pull him up to standing position.

“Like to make an entrance, don’t I?” He smiled up at her grabbing her hand and springing to a standing position.

Slowly turning the Doctor took a great breath declaring the air not a threat at least for now. He noted, however, they were in a tunnel meaning it would be easy enough to gas them if they had a mind to do so. He took a look around, puzzled by the tunnel which seemed very modern suggesting the use of advanced technology. It was at an angle appropriate for a fast moving spacecraft exiting at high speed. It convinced him this was a back door and not an invitation from whomever was in charge. Someone wanted to help them but the Doctor wanted out of the tunnel before a fast moving object tried to exit and wiped them out in the process.

“Come on Rose, let’s get out of here!” He grabbed her hand hustling her along. “Look for a branching tunnel or a service hatch of some kind.”

They started running hand in hand following the tunnel downward. In every respect he seemed normal but Rose knew that had he used the sonic he would have been able to find what he was looking for immediately. She was more convinced than ever that he had been compromised leaving her worried about what else they had planted in his brain.

“Hold up Rose,” he called stopping and looking up. Half way up the circular tunnel, there was a flush mounted hatch door. He managed to get the hatch open and pulled himself up first wanting to assess the situation before risking Rose. It looked like a standard access tunnel used for servicing the infrastructure of the complex. He turned and pulled Rose up behind him and resealed the hatch. Given the warmth and confined space the Doctor removed his coat, carefully folded it and stored it in his suit jacket’s transdimensional pocket.

As they crawled along Rose couldn’t help but notice the Doctor’s attractive bum.

“Rose Tyler you stop looking at my arse!” 

“Doctor, how am I supposed to do that when it’s arseing about right in front of me?” She was sure he was deliberately showcasing it now. “Anyway I would really like it if you were naked right now!” she informed him.

“Oi! Now is hardly the time, although I do have a spectacular bottom!”

Suddenly he stopped, turned and sat with his back against the side of the service tunnel motioning her to come to him. He reached for her and pulled her onto his lap.

“Rose, I need to talk to you. Okay?” Rose nodded curiously, feeling the importance of the moment. He gently brushed his knuckles across her soft cheek. “Thanks for coming with me.”

He looked her in the eye and confessed,”I think something is wrong with me Rose. I feel like l’m not remembering things I should as though my muscle memory prompts me into actions my brain has no memory about. A Time Lord brain tends to have back ups so that if a memory is destroyed, with malicious intent, it is stored elsewhere in the brain. But I can’t access them and that means we’re dealing with skills beyond anything I’ve encountered before and there are other implications, perhaps more troubling.”

Rose nodded interjecting, “They might have implanted suggestions in your brain?”

Nodding he took her hands in his. “Rose I’m afraid those suggestions might lead me to hurt you again, that they might be more than suggestions rather more like compulsions.”

Rose squeezed his hands acknowledging his fears. “Doctor do you actually know they’ve done this or are you assuming they have because you sense they’ve tampered with your memories?”

“I haven’t sensed they’ve planted compulsions but it’s reasonable to assume they would if it served their purposes and I might not know it until they’re triggered.”

“And you think they may be sexual in nature because it stimulates them?”

He nodded and she could see his shame and fear. “Doctor I’ll grant you they may well be more powerful telepathically than you suspected but let me remind you of something you said earlier. Remember you said their appetite for sexual stimulation might be a weakness that could be exploited. And let’s not forget you’re powerful too and you have me and I can tell you if your behaviour is off yeah?” Rose had every intention of following through but not about the sonic. The TARDIS had given her the number and until she knew it wasn’t a sonic setting she was going to wait.

His face lit up in astonished delight and the Doctor observed, “You do listen to me Rose and you remember my ideas!”

Kissing each cheek Rose replied, “Of course I do you daft alien! I’m not just here for your dangly bits and the leg overs ya know!”

He smiled up at her but like the shifting sands of an hourglass his mood turned again and she saw his fear surface once more.

“What if their manipulations in some way involve me hurting you?” the Doctor asked, his anguish evident.

“Doctor, I don’t believe you’d hurt me. I know you did something very out of character that first night when they took you over but it’s different now. You’re aware something has been done to you and now we’re both going to be on the game yeah? Plus let’s not forget that you’re mentally strong and it’s one thing to program a compulsion but another thing entirely to reprogram a Time Lord’s entire character,” Rose declared with certainty.

The Doctor hugged her thanking Rassilon she was with him although his doubts remained about the danger they were facing.

“Rose, I think we need to turn off our shields now.” He watched her carefully to see if she doubted him but his Rose benignly waited for him to explain. She didn’t doubt him. What had he ever done to deserve her? “The thing is the shields are making us quite detectable and they may hurt the captured brains.” He rummaged in his pocket. “I brought these perception filters with me for us. I know they will mask our presence but it’s possible whoever is responsible for all this could still sense us,” he explained.

Rose reached down and turned off her belt and attached the perception filter to her top. The Doctor, ever grateful for her trust, did the same.

“One last thing Rose, I think we should talk about what you do if I don’t make it!”

Her eyes widening in surprise and alarm he put his index finger gently on her lips.

“Now Rose, even the best generals plan their retreats, not just their victories,” he said softly. If I can’t regenerate and I die, I want you to use all your cunning, turn on your shield and get back to the TARDIS. Use the emergency protocols to get home okay?”

Rose cupped his handsome face in her hands. Whatever had been in his head, had it compromised his ability to regenerate or had it just implanted the idea that he couldn’t?

“Doctor, they want your brain so they won’t do anything to make you regenerate. It doesn’t sound right to me that you just said, ‘if I can’t regenerate’. It’s most likely an idea they planted in your mind. They may be able to plant ideas in your brain but they can’t change your body’s automatic response to death!”

Rose gently ruffled her hands through his hair watching his eyes close in bliss. “You are going to make it Doctor! But I want you to know so long as you live I will never leave you. And if you die, truly die, I will not leave you behind. I will take you home to your TARDIS. If I die in the process I will have died the way I wanted - trying to save you. I’ll not hear another word on this so you better not die!” 

Sighing sadly the Doctor leaned forward and kissed her. She sank into his embrace wondering if their kiss was his goodbye. Tears ran down her cheeks.


	6. Chapter 6

“Oh Rose, don’t cry. Please don’t cry,” he whispered in her ear while gently stroking her hair and her back. “I’m sorry Rose, I didn’t mean to upset you.”

Rose left his embrace leaving him feeling cold. She brushed the tears from her eyes quickly watching him closely. Oh yes she knew he was sorry about upsetting her, she had no doubt about that but she also had no doubt something else was going on and she wanted to address it head on.

“Doctor I want you to listen to me very carefully. This is not you! You are defeating yourself and that’s not you! You’ve gone into battle many times with all the odds against you and you’ve won even though you were prepared to die, to regenerate. You’re beyond clever, leagues beyond clever. Now you’ve let them convince you that you can’t regenerate, that you can’t win!” She grabbed his lapels and shook him. “STOP IT! You hear me! They have left this defeated thinking in your brain and I want you to fix it right now or I’m going to kick your arse. Now get a grip!”

Shaking his head at her admonition he blinked in surprise and nodded at her. “You’re right Rose. This is not typical behaviour for me.”

“Doctor, they’re trying to paralyze you with fear and dread and maybe that’s what they do to make it easier to capture your brain. But you’re a Time Lord, biggest brains in the universe ‘n all that. Surely there’s something you can do? Healing trance maybe? Something? Anything?”

“Well,” he mused, “when I was in school and we had to do analytical work free of bias, we were taught mental techniques to dampen our emotions. Of course that’s easier to do in already neutral circumstances like an experiment or analysis, more difficult in emotional situations like confronting danger or you sitting on my lap.”

Smiling at him affectionately Rose commented, “Well get to it then Doctor! You have to shake out of it.” She watched as his eyes closed and his breathing slowed into steady, regular draws. After several moments his eyes opened and he nodded at her.

“It’s done Rose and thank you and please continue to keep an eye on me. Have you noticed anything else?”

“Well no, not so far but I have a suggestion.”

“I’m listening Rose,” the Doctor responded curiously.

Rose leaned forward and his arms wrapped around her as they both took solace from just being together, being close. Even though they missed the intimacy of their bond they were content to comfort each other in a crawl space on an alien planet where danger lurked and death was a real and present danger.

“I think you should give me the goop,” Rose finally responded.

“Why?”

“Suppose the goop is used to clear the way for them to access your system again. Why have it so handy? They haven’t paid attention to me so maybe it would be safer with me.” 

Pausing to think, while rubbing his hands up and down her back, he finally said, “I see it differently Rose. My interest in the substance was certainly to analyze it but I was hoping to fashion an antidote and possibly a defence. Often the opposite chemical properties to a creature’s defence can harm it or debilitate it. Also I believe I have been successful in preventing it from being used to access my brain again. What I can’t be sure of is what they may have left behind when they did access it. That said, I propose to divide the goop between us.” He moved her gently to a sitting position and reached in his pocket for another vial as Rose shifted off his lap. 

“Why would that be better Doctor?” she asked curiously.

“Three reasons Rose,” he explained, “first, if they take it to attack me or to prevent me from doing anything with it, they’ll do it right away and that will be a big clue about the importance of this substance. Two, if they have no interest in it then it probably has no importance other than initial brain access which they’ve already accomplished. Three, if they do take it right away then you’ll have some as back up and you’ll have to escape and get back to the TARDIS and get her to analyze it and convert it.” He had separated the green goop into two vials and handed one over to her.

“Okay,” the Doctor said, clapping his hands together, “let’s get going. We’ll continue down this access tunnel until we find the place with the captured brains. Look for any spot with more than one panel. There should be at least three or four panels. They would be for power, electrical, cooling and so on. That’s where we’ll take a peek to make sure we’re in the right spot. The plan is to free them. Then all hell will break loose. The perpetrators will show themselves and we’ll see what we’re facing.

“So we’re making it up as we go along?” Rose asked cheekily.

“That’s us Rose Tyler!” the Doctor beamed.

Rose nodded and they set off again crawling down the access tunnel. It didn’t take long before the Doctor found a row of panels, including an access hatch. He signalled to her that now was the time for quiet. He showed her the hatch like the one they’d used to enter the access tunnels. Carefully he opened it a sliver, peering into the room. He gave a thumbs up to Rose. They were in the right spot. He held the hatch door open and slipped silently down into the room. Quickly he turned and grabbed Rose by her thighs lifting her down.

Looking around they were in a cavernous room full of beds. Many beds were unoccupied but about 80 beds, grouped together in the centre, held prisoners. Rose gasped taking it all in trying to keep her horror from being vocalized. The bodies appeared to represent many species some of which Rose recognized. All of the bodies were frail, almost emaciated despite all the tubes connected to their bodies, some of which she assumed were intended to feed them. They had infections from bed sores due to lack of care. She realized it was going to be a lot more difficult to save them than they hoped. She doubted whether these people could walk let alone run. They were going to need outside help, perhaps galactic police like the Shadow Proclamation to restore them to health sufficiently to move them. 

She watched the Doctor moving quickly around the room trying to find the control panel for the beds. Moving into the rows she noted that even the young among them had bodies that looked aged and faces that looked pained. In all cases each individual had electrodes attached to their brains. Some were groaning, others twitched fitfully. Overall, she was sure they were all exhausted and in pain. Finally she found the person she hoped to find, an aged beyond his years, human male. He had his eyes open and clearly knew they were there. She switched off her perception filter and his eyes found her.

“You’ve come,” he whispered exhausted.

“Hello, my name is Rose, Rose Tyler. I’m from Earth.” She slipped her hand in his hoping the warmth of another human hand might sooth him. “I’m with the Doctor and we’ve come to take you home. What’s your name?”

“Nathaniel,” he rasped.

“Nathaniel, how can we shut off the machines that hold you captive?”

“If you shut them off while the poison remains growing in our brains we will all die!”

Rose could see how he struggled to speak so she tried to frame her questions so they required yes or no answers.

“Is the poison the green slime from the creatures that are disguised to look humanoid?” Rose whispered close to his ear.

Nathaniel blinked and it seemed it took significant strength just for him to breath but he nodded yes.

“And your minds have all been programmed with this substance so you cannot rebel or resist any suggestions you receive?”

Another nod yes.

“Nathaniel, the Doctor thinks the chemistry of the green stuff can be changed so it can’t control the victims. Is he right?”

Nathaniel nodded yes again.

As much as she wanted to avoid taxing his meagre reserves of strength she had no choice.

“Sweetheart, do you know what I have to do to change it?”

He shook his head no and just as she thought she’d hit a dead end she heard the young Earth telepath whisper numbers, “1-7-5-6.”

She thought she could jump for joy but instead she felt anguish that she would have to push him further.

“Nathaniel, please sweetheart, one more question, if you can. If I can change the green substance how do I apply it to remove the control it has over you?”

“One dot on temple,” he rasped out.

“Thank you Nathaniel. You rest now. I promise we’re coming back for you. You hang on. I promise!”

Rose brushed her cheek against his. This poor soul, stolen from his home and trapped here with no love, no touch, half alive. She shivered to think what he had endured. Just as she started to pull back she heard him stir and shifted to look in his eyes.

“The Queen comes for him. She wants his sperm.” Nathaniel’s eyes closed and would open no more. 

Hoping he wasn’t yet in death’s frigid embrace she leaned down and whispered in his ear, “Your life counted dear Nathaniel. Because of you we will save all these people. I promise we’ll take you home!” Then she kissed his cheek.

A wisp of a smile appeared on the boy’s face. At his death an alarm started.


	7. Chapter 7

Clearing the beds at a sprint, brushing tears from her eyes at the loss of Nathaniel, she ran to find the Doctor. Turning her perception filter on again, she manoeuvred the sonic out and the vial from her pocket slowing only slightly as she zapped the green goop with the sonic screwdriver. Then she unstoppered the vial ready to put a dot on the Doctor’s temple. 

“Rose!” the Doctor yelled, “this way!” He intercepted her at a full run grabbing her hand and heading them back to the access hatch. “I heard what Nathaniel said. You’re going back up into the access tunnel. Wait til they leave with me then come back in and dot everyone, then press the red button on the control panel. It’ll create a diversion.” As they ran Rose restored the vile to her pocket and the Doctor handed her his vial now that they knew it’s importance. When they arrived at the access hatch the Doctor crouched down and lifted her by the thighs shoving her up into the open hatch door. “Be sure to close the hatch. Find me once these people are free. I have to get back to the control panel before they get here.”

“Doctor, these people are too weak to get out of here. We’re gonna need help to rescue them.”

Nodding his head in agreement he explained, “Too true, Rose but if they’re free this place won’t be able to function and it will disable their space lure from trapping other travellers. In the short term we feed and care for them til we can alert authorities!”

Rose nodded her agreement but she found the Doctor’s reasoning odd. Wouldn’t they just reinfect these people and carry on? She didn’t have time to ask him as she had other questions.

“Doctor who the hell is this Queen Nathaniel mentioned?”

Eager to get going the Doctor was hopping up and down. “I have no idea Rose but I’m guessing she’s running the show!”

“Doctor I need to dot you!”

“No, not yet. They or she will know if I’m free of their tampering. I can’t explain why but the antidote repulses me. It’s, therefore, likely they conditioned me against making or taking it! If you dot me they’ll know I am not alone and they’ll lock down access to this room. We only have one chance to free the captives. Find me after and dot me.”

He turned to run back to the control panel as Rose leaned forward to close the hatch door. Suddenly the Doctor stopped his plimsolls screeching on the polished floor. “Rose, how did you alter the grub secretions?”

Oh boy she thought but her instinct told her to bluff through it but stick close to the truth . “Nathaniel had a device in his pocket. He was so weak he whispered the setting to use,” she explained.

“1-7-5-6?” he asked.

“Yeah.”

Although he hadn’t reacted she sensed he wasn’t quite satisfied with her answer. Finally he turned from her moving at full speed back to the control panel.

Rose swung the hatch door almost closed wondering about the Queen and what she would do with the Doctor’s sperm but she had a good idea - a new crew of Time Lord brains she could harvest from the Doctor’s precious sperm. Mind you Rose knew it wouldn’t be as easy as this Queen thought! Besides that wasn’t really what she was worried about. What she was truly worried about was something Nathaniel said. He said the poison remained “growing” in their brains. The Doctor had heard Nathaniel yet he’d refused the cure. She was terrified the more the poison spread in the Doctor’s brain the more compromised he would become. 

Peering out the slit she’d left open she heard the door to the captives’ room open. A phalanx of grub people walked in first and then came the Queen. If one could personify malice she was it. Studying her Rose found herself wondering if it was malice so much as indifference, as though this Queen thought of herself as so far above her captives on the evolutionary scale they were nothing more than insects to be squashed. That’s what makes you a git Rose thought. She had visited worlds with intelligent and hospitable insects and she knew this so called Queen’s weakness. Pride! She didn’t see anyone or anything around her as a threat. Well have at it Queenie! You’re about to tangle with a Time Lord and an Earth woman and you’re going to lose!

Rose turned her attention back to the Queen studying her closely. She wore a skin tight, shimmering black, body leotard. It covered a tall, statuesque body with an amazing figure that Rose knew men would kill to possess. Probably a slug underneath Rose mused uncharitably. She noted the Doctor never once looked at her figure and she was so reassured by that simple act of loyalty. The Queen wore a silver belt that curved forward from her waist line in the back, down over her hips in the front and narrowed to a vee over her lower abdomen. Rose wondered if the belt was some sort of weapon. On the Queen’s forehead the belt pattern around her waist was repeated encircling a full head of hair that was lustrous, long and a shocking pure white. And, like most self aggrandizing, self proclaimed potentates the universe over, she wore a cape that shimmered around her. Then there were her eyes. Oh they gave a chill! They glistened brightly, cold and metallic like polished grey steel. They were rimmed red, watchful and intent and the black slit of the pupil opened on a pit into nothing. Rose repressed the urge to shiver.

Those cruel eyes raked over the Doctor’s form. Like a rapier her voiced sliced out an order and a threat, “Come not between the Razgar and it’s prey or you will rest here in this house of lamentation, in the darkness where your flesh will be devoured and your shrivelled mind left naked for final consumption.”

Rose anxiously watched for the Doctor’s response. She wasn’t disappointed. After the mad dash to get back to the control panel he had arranged himself into a picture of casual nonchalance, leaning on the console. While the Queen spoke he made a show of examining his nails with great interest. After her chilling warning, he waited for several beats and then drew himself up to his full height which was taller than her, and exploded into ecstatic applause. Then the Doctor moved, in the blink of an eye, he stood right in front of the Queen. Rose saw the Queen take a nervous step back as the Doctor’s enthusiastic response unnerved her.

“Oh, bravo, that was brilliant!” the Doctor enthused, “positively Shakespearean, I’d say! Do you have theatre, acting lessons maybe, where you come from? Hmmm? I must say that was very well delivered. And where did you say you come from?”

The Queen did not answer. “Well, no matter,” the Doctor said, “Hello, I’m the Doctor! Pleased to meet you!” The Doctor stuck out his hand smiling widely. The Queen did not take it. She merely sneered at him.

“Oh that sneer thing, oh that is not a good look for you, no sireee! Now where was I? Oh yes of course, your theatrical performance. Perhaps you need me to respond in kind, hmmm?” 

The Doctor tapped his bottom lip looking up deep in thought. Then he turned to her and his demeanour was that of a superior and his disdain for her evident. The storm roiled in his eyes and his voice whiplashed the Queen with strength, ”Your greed for power will be a sword in your gut. The hand who twists it will be your own. Compared to the armies I have defeated you are but a small beast, brutish and vicious you are, because you guard a wound in your underbelly. You have been pierced with the twin swords of desperation and misery causing you to wail in the dark, ‘feed me, feed me!” The Doctor paused then inquired, “Well? How was that? Sufficiently theatrical, ominous?” he drawled, his hands in his pockets as he bounced up and down on his plimsolls.

The Queen took another step back appraising him and with her polished steel eyes flashing malevolence she hissed out, “I kill where I wish and none dare resist me. I laid low my enemies of old and none remain. You pose no threat to me. You shall be used to provide for me.” The Queen moved her hands in several graceful patterns and then ordered the Doctor, “Kneel!”

Crashing to his knees, the Doctor bowed his head and as Rose watched in horror he inched forward, bent over and kissed the toe of her black boot in a gesture of total surrender. Rose watched as he timidly followed the Queen and her entourage out the door.

Oh my gawd it was worse than she thought! Rose was shaking with fear. If this Queen could do this to the Doctor what chance did she have? She needed to think. Think! Think! First thing, a hard-as-a-rock thing, it didn’t matter how scared she was because she was going to save the Doctor or die trying. Maybe she needed to save the Doctor first, then the captives. If he was free of the poison goop she felt sure he would know how to defeat them. If she freed the captives now, she had no way to move them and they’d just be reinfected and reconnected plus they’d know someone else was here with the Doctor. Course the Queen might find out about her if she was reading the Doctor’s mind but Rose didn’t think she was. Probably the green goop made the captives and the Doctor unable to resist suggestion. Had they been wrong about the grub people? If the Queen was running the show was she the one planting suggestions? Clearly she needed more information but one thing she felt sure about was the need to save the Doctor first. Yes she would find the Doctor first. Surely at some point he would be alone and she would get to him and dot him. Carefully she closed the hatch and turned around.

Rose could not help the tiny screech that escaped her lips as she took in the baby grub that sat blinking at her curiously. For the first time she noticed it’s tiny appendages. Instead of fingers they had little grabbers for hands and small legs that helped them balance when sitting up, holding it upright. This little grub was kinda cute as it tilted it’s head in a perfect imitation of a curious puppy wondering what she was. It seemed the old adage that all babies were cute was true. He had dark button eyes and, surprisingly, eyebrows too, although not conventional ones. The baby grub’s eyebrows were flesh that molded into different expressions as required. She watched with amusement as it clapped it’s grabbers together making a little mewling sound which Rose understood to mean, what are you? It’s legs, if you could call them that, pumped up and down in excitement. Rose reached in her pocket and pulled out an energy bar breaking off two pieces, popping one in her mouth and holding out the other piece to the little creature. He used his legs to bounce over plopping down beside her. He took his piece and shoved it in his mouth humming happily.

Although Rose felt an urgent need to find the Doctor these creatures emitted the substance that held her Doctor captive. But how did the substance fit in with the suggestions planted in the Doctor’s brain? This was an opportunity to learn about the grubs. She had assumed they were the enemy. The question was whether she’d judged too hastily based on her Earth prejudices. She felt one of the little creature’s grabbers brushing her hand. She broke off another piece and put it in his grabber whereupon it popped it in his mouth and continued to hum happily. Rose absentmindedly rubbed her hand along the ridges at the back of his head although it was hard to tell with a grub where the head ended and the back began.

After a few minutes the little creature fell asleep and Rose concluded she should move along. She noticed the grub was secreting a pink coloured salve of some sort. It covered her hand but it was wonderful, like silk and she seemed to feel an immediate sense of well-being. She noticed her hand quickly absorbed the substance and momentarily she worried it might hurt her in some way. Just as she was about to leave the little creature safely sleeping, two full grown grubs came into view. Rose knew the little grub was their child when his parents became increasingly agitated. Not wanting to be sprayed again with the green stuff, Rose raised her hands slowly, staying still and not making any threatening moves. The little grub snuggled into Rose seeking her soothing touch. The parents could see their young one was not harmed and squeaked at their child, presumably to come to them. The little guy immediately woke and pushed his grabber into Rose’s side seeking more food. Moving her hands very slowly she broke off another piece and let the child take it. Doing so it popped the food in it’s mouth and bounced over to it’s parents.

Keeping their eyes on Rose they ran their grabbers over their child trying to determine if there was any damage. They both calmed when they realized all was well. Rose broke her remaining energy bar in half and held her hand out to them. She saw what she assumed was the mother hold back the child. The male, who was the largest grub moved forward and took the piece of food with it’s grabber then nibbled on a corner. Like the young one he bounced up and down as he chewed. After studying her the male reached out one of its grabbers. Slowly Rose reached out her hand until she held the grabber in her hand. 

She was astonished to hear the male in her mind, “May we communicate?”


	8. Chapter 8

Rose answered in kind,”Yes, of course. My name is Rose Tyler. Your child found me and I tried to look out for him.”

“I see that. Thank you. My child is an explorer, like you, I suspect. I am named Bram. Are you not the one who harmed those in service to the Queen?”

Rose knew the truth was in order. “My mate fashioned a protection for us but it was not intended to kill, only to keep those who hurt my mate at a safe distance from us. He does not kill. He saves. He was attacked telepathically by those who wore a disguise but, we later learned, they were beings like you,” Rose explained not wanting to go any further until she knew what danger he represented and hoping her kindness to his child would earn her some favour.

Bram studied her and she got the impression he was not at all what she had assumed. He was intelligent, possibly a being capable of love and family and was part of a society.

Of course Bram could tell what she was thinking. “I sense you are a being of intelligence too, capable of reason, so know this, those you saw disguised were in service to the Queen because she is evil and holds their children hostage to force them into her service.” 

Rose gasped at the cruelty of this Queen and Bram knew it was genuine empathy for a species she did not know. There was something special about her and he began to trust her and this being she called the Doctor.

“Bram,” Rose asked, “who is this Queen? What do you know about her?”

“Not much I’m afraid. She is the maker of death, who came to our world from the spaces in between. She changes matter binding others with her spells but she is not a telepath. Our kind produce secretions that enable us to enter the minds of others, such as natural predators or visitors who threaten us. Our secretions are a defence mechanism allowing us to warn them off with frightening visions, scents and so on but that is all. Unfortunately they have no effect on non telepaths like the Queen. But she forces us to produce the secretions so she can use the access the secretions give her to plant her suggestions in the minds of those she captures. Also, it is her sorcery that creates the suggestions as well as the disguises that make my people look a bit like yours,” Bram explained.

“But Bram you did not use any secretion to gain access to my mind?” Rose asked.

“I don’t think you were born a telepath but somehow I sense you became one. Among our kind we touch each other in this fashion,” he said, wiggling his grabber, “in order to communicate with the mind. With other species we use our secretions to enter their minds through their nervous systems,” he explained. “It is an alternative that usually works when we need to circumvent those with telepathic protections or predatory species who wouldn’t be disposed to hold our appendages to communicate. But as I said it is to frighten enemies away from us, not to communicate. Of course that changed when the Queen came here.” Bram’s anger and fear towards the Queen was clear.

“Yes, the Doctor, knew the attempt to reach his mind came through the nervous system,” Rose confirmed.

“Rose Tyler, your Doctor is the most powerful telepath we have ever experienced. His food was heavily laced with secretions. He did not realize he was under attack until my kind reached his mind. It took many, many of my people to keep access open for the Queen and despite his efforts against our intrusion, she managed to plant her suggestions in his brain.“

Rose snapped to attention and asked, “What would those suggestions be Bram?”

“Usually what you might imagine...’obey me’, being one that she usually uses. But I sense there is much more about your Doctor that interests her. She wants to breed him to get more minds like his to run this place.”

Rose snorted in disgust. “She underestimates the power of his kind. Besides, it takes hundreds of years for their brains to fully develop. Even if she could overcome the time for pregnancy to full term and the time for a child to grow to the age required, by then she may have just created the weapon of her own undoing!”

Bram looked at her sadly his fleshy eyebrows telling her his emotion. “Or, Rose Tyler, she might be creating the weapon she needs to expand from this planet into an empire!”

Rose didn’t want to think about that. For the moment it wasn’t the priority. “Bram, I spoke with one of the captured brains. He was from my planet and told me the secretion ‘grew in the minds of those captured to run this place. What do you know of this?”

“It’s not that it grows so much as it is reapplied to give the Queen access in the event she wishes to change or add to her suggestions. Also the secretions lose strength over time and eventually dissipate. New secretions must be added to re-open access to the mind. Perhaps that is what he meant.”

“Hmmm,” Rose mused, “perhaps. The Doctor told me he figured out how to chemically change the secretion to stop any future access. If he said it, it’s true. That means even if the Queen orders him to accept more secretions, unless she specifically orders him not to change the substance’s chemical structure, he should be free of her at some point. How long does it take Bram?” 

“Hmmm, depends on the entity infected but he is strong, so I’d estimate two, maybe, three days. But, that is not the most pertinent question is it? The real question is how long do the suggestions last?”

Oh gawd Bram was right and neither of them knew the answer to that question. Still, Rose found the information from Bram extremely useful and she felt immensely heartened that she had taken the time with this likable species even though she was desperate to rescue the Doctor and frantic to find out what they were doing to him. It was like the Doctor was reminding her once again, ‘All life is brilliant Rose and deserves to be respected!’

“Bram, we saw one of the disguised of your kind making hand motions over the Doctor’s food, motions like the Queen makes. The Doctor thought the hand motions were references to my planet’s symbol for a metal we call copper and the motions were intended to convert or maybe remove any copper from the food. Is it your kind who have to avoid this metal?”

Bram looked puzzled and appeared to be thinking. Finally he said, “As far as I know my kind has no aversion to any metals, at least none on this planet. By the way, we are known as the Prawnians.”

Rose smiled at that wondering if individuals were called Prawns, but she didn’t ask. She did, however, sense that Bram was still deep in thought so she waited for him to continue.

“So if my kind is not averse to the metal in question does it mean the Queen is? It’s unlikely she would have taught one of us how to make the hand symbols and even if she had it would be a big risk that it wouldn’t have worked. Could she have disguised herself? Perhaps it was her mutating his food and her that has an aversion to this metal. And now that I think about it, I heard from some of my friends forced to access your Doctor that the Queen had quite the negative reaction to how your Doctor sees time.”

“So if the Queen was there in disguise that would explain my mate’s odd behaviour. He is disciplined about scanning our food and drink when we travel to make sure it’s safe for us but he ignored his own safety protocols.”

“Remember the Queen is not a telepath, however, her implanted suggestions are in the minds of all the captured telepaths. From the moment you arrived the force of all those minds creating a telepathic field of assurance that it was safe to eat might have been enough to subtlety shift him from regular practices. She just needed to get food and our secretions into him and the rest we know,” Bram suggested. 

Hmmm that was still odd because the Doctor would have been hypersensitive to telepathy but Rose decided to think about that later. For now she was elated. This information was invaluable and she unconsciously touched the belt the Doctor had made for them given the double whammy it packed of copper vapour and time dilation. 

“Bram, one last question. What was the substance your child excreted while I was soothing him or her?” 

Bram smiled or at least as close as he could come to smiling. “My child is a he by the way. Until they reach maturity our children do not develop the apparatus necessary for telepathic communication. Because we need to keep them safe and protected, we sooth them so they secrete the substance. It is the secretions from our children that allows us to read their minds and control their thinking to protect them from doing things that might harm them. When they mature it’s simple touch, like we’re doing, that allows communication.”

Rose’s eyes widened with enthusiasm and she blurted out, “Do you enter their minds through the nervous system? And if it allows you to control their thinking, can we get a bunch of it and pour it on the Queen?”

“Yes we enter through our children’s nervous systems. As for the Queen, an interesting idea. While it could give us access to her mind I don’t know if planting a direction to stop using her sorcery would work but it would be worth a try. Of course, there are other challenges. My son could not produce enough of the secretion to overcome the Queen.”

Rose smiled and spoke in Bram’s mind, “Of course we couldn’t get enough of the pink stuff from your son. But Bram, thanks to your invaluable information our entire plan has fallen into place.

“It has?” Bram asked.

“Yep. First, we free the children. Then we get some of the pink salve by soothing them. With the children free then your people are free to help us on the sly. Then we free the Doctor, then we douse the Queen with the pink salve, and then we free the captives!” Rose slapped her hands together declaring, “Yep, we complete the plan and our problems are done and dusted.”

“You may be over confident,” Bram noted with a good deal of skepticism.

“Nahhhh, we can do it. Do you know where the children are?”

Turned out the rescue of the children was a most excellent and comical affair and Rose wished the Doctor had been there to see it. There were 23 baby grubs left alone in a locked room that her and Bram had to rescue and hide afterwards. Bram had explained that only the Queen had the key to the room. Once a day one of the grub people was accompanied by the Queen to feed the young. Bram led Rose to the room through the access tunnels but of course his physiology did not permit him to rescue them on his own as much as he wished he could. However, together with Rose a rescue became possible. She had 14 energy bars hidden in various pockets, which she always carried incase the Doctor got them thrown in jail. She broke them in pieces and threw them in the room right below the access hatch. The babies all bounced over and clustered below the hatch. Then Bram chirped instructions to hold onto Rose’s belt and they would fly like birds and get more food. The babies all started bouncing eager for play and food. Hanging out of the hatch and dangling her belt down into the room, Rose pulled them up one by one until every last baby was bobbing up and down chirping and bouncing down the access tunnel following Bram’s wife Perta and his son to safety. It was quite the sight and Rose couldn’t wait for the Doctor to see it all in her mind. 

Then they waited with the hatch only slightly open until they heard a key in the lock and a grub person entered, luckily without the Queen who waited outside, no doubt not the least interested in such menial tasks. The grub person looked up from the food he was carrying about to squeal in shock when Bram leaned out the hatch signalling the grub person over. Rose held Bram by his legs so the two grubs could touch grabbers. Bram convinced his fellow grub the children were safe and being cared for and to spread the news they would soon be liberated. He explained they needed to keep up the ruse with the Queen until further instruction. He promised that with the children safe the Queen had no hold over them. The grub person was so grateful he didn’t want to let go of Bram. Bram assured him they had a plan and soon they would all be free again with the help of the Doctor and Rose Tyler. Rose could tell the grub person held Bram in high esteem.

It turned out that Bram and his family had been hiding in the tunnels unknown to the Queen and he was the leader of his people, keeping their spirits up through clandestine contacts with his people when opportunity permitted. It warmed Rose’s heart to see how pleased Bram and his wife were that finally they had help and they had rescued the children together. With Bram’s help she took a special exit route and raced to the TARDIS packing duffle bags full of food for the children and Bram’s family. She took comfort from the fact the TARDIS seemed okay, humming a welcome to her. It suggested the Doctor was at least still alive. She made it back to Bram and safely back to his family and the babies. As the babies bounced, played and ate, the adults soothed them and collected pink salve into jars Rose brought from the TARDIS.

It was time to free the Doctor.


	9. Chapter 9

She felt good the children were free, the grub people were free and ready to assist not to mention that half their plan had been successfully completed but Rose was troubled about several niggly bits that she found odd. Like why would the TARDIS tell her to use the 1756 setting on the sonic? It didn’t make sense the setting she’d been warned to remember was for converting the green secretions. After all, the Doctor had figured out how to change the chemical structure of the secretions himself. Rose was pretty sure he had told her the truth about that. Even Bram admitted it had taken all their efforts to get in his mind and eventually the Doctor had figured out how to evict them and prevent them from getting back in. But they had gotten access that one time, that one night, and the Queen had clearly planted suggestions using what Bram called sorcery. So what was the 1756 setting for? It had to be for something else, perhaps related to the Queen directly. It had been her who had planted the suggestion in the Doctor’s mind to leave his beloved sonic behind. Why was she afraid of the sonic? And when she’d used the sonic on the green secretions why had the Doctor felt repelled by them? Or maybe 1756 was intended for the Doctor? She was desperate to free the Doctor and she wasn’t going to wait one minute longer despite not knowing all the answers she needed. She squared her shoulders and set her jaw. Wouldn’t be the first time she’d gone in blind.

Rose followed Bram down the access tunnel to the Queen’s chamber. They carefully and quietly opened the access hatch. The bedchamber was dark and thankfully empty except for the Doctor who appeared to be sleeping. Rose spied his suit tossed on a chair which she knew he would never do. He always folded his clothes making her feel like a messy tosser, although he never criticized her for it. More often than not he ended up folding her clothes neatly which always made her smile. She knew his coat was in one of the pockets of his suit and made a mental note not to forget it. Bram was to stand ready to pull Rose back up should she need to make a quick exit. Slipping quietly down into the room, Rose carefully looked around, allowing her eyes to adjust to the darkness. She approached the bed. 

It took everything she had not to shriek in horror. The Doctor lay on the bed covered in blood, his face closed in a grimace, his skin pale and clammy. Every few minutes he would groan, his whole body convulsing, consumed by a pain that knew no end or limit. Then he would go quiet, just panting. His facial expression was cadaver-like. He was in so much pain his complexion was ashen. His natural skin had sunken to something so lifeless it scared Rose just to look at him. There was an odd tilting of his head, perhaps fatigue after a session of battling the Queen she guessed. His limbs appeared too heavy for him, like he was personally battling against far more gravity than everyone else. His eyes opened and closed as though he was drawing himself into a deeper place just to cope. All she could do was stroke his hair and hold his hand. It barely seemed enough, yet his hearts rate calmed somewhat. It broke her heart to see him hurting this way and she couldn’t stop a sob from escaping her lips. She should have come sooner. She should have been here when he needed her most. But he’d closed their mental connection to prevent others from getting to her through him. Why didn’t he reopen their link? She knew why. He knew she would have run to him and he would not risk her being hurt despite his desperate need.

With sudden realization she knew there was something she could do! She was his bond mate. He may have sealed his and anyone else’s ability to access her through him but she could enter his mind! His telepathic shields recognized her bond signature and dropped for her. She could comfort him and whatever the bitch had planted in his mind, he would not face it alone. 

Gently she brushed her fingers over his temples, calming herself for what she might find, and slipped into his mind. Waves of grief, sorrow and hopelessness washed over her as she metaphorically stumbled under the weight of it. Then the pain he felt staggered her and she had to shield herself from it if she was to help him. Within seconds she realized what had been done to him. His mind was consumed with sorrow. His sexual organs were bleeding and raw with abuse from the Queen who had made many attempts to breed with him, ultimately rubbing him til he bled. Rose saw the horrible images of his torture at the hands of the Queen. In the real world she cried at what they’d done to him, He had refused the dead-eyed Queen over and over. And he had done so because of her, his Rose, the only one he loved. To him it would have been a betrayal of his loyalty to her. The Queen had not accounted for the control the Doctor had over his body. He’d certainly not been attracted to her but he could have achieved an erection, completed the act and spared himself but not her Doctor. Refusal after refusal, each one debasing the Queen, until she had slowly sliced open each of his testicles and withdrawn his sperm, leaving him to bleed to death. That hadn’t been enough. She’d spent hours inflicting pain on him ending with the most unspeakable pain. She used one of the suggestions she’d left in his mind to torture him to his breaking point. That suggestion had been sharpened and honed into a cruel shard that pierced his hearts and he gave up and chose not to allow his body to heal itself. Rose knew without doubt he would not have allowed his body to regenerate. The illusion the bitch had used to rob him of hope was that Rose Tyler was dead, attacked by the grubs and left to bleed to death. Rose knew she had to act quickly.

“Doctor,” she called softly, “I’m here. It’s Rose. I’ve come for you Doctor. I found you. Please Doctor, listen to me, sense me in your mind. I’m not dead. The Queen made you believe it. But I’m here with you. I love you Doctor. Please don’t leave me.” Rose found his essence and showered him with her protective love.

“You’re not Rose! I’m dying! Leave me to it!”

“Doctor, please listen to me. The Queen is not a telepath. She used the secretions of the grub people to get access to your brain and it was her who planted the illusion in your mind that I’m dead. I’m not Doctor! I’m right here beside you. I know all this because I saved one of the grub people’s children and made friends with them. I found out the grub people are only in service to the Queen because she took all their children. Bram and I saved all the children and they’re safe now so the grub people are helping us. Please Doctor, look at me!”

Despite his pain, the Doctor couldn’t help but recognize how like Rose it was to save others, to empathize with them and make friends. He realized the Queen couldn’t fake that, much less have a desire to do it. She didn’t understand compassion.

“Rose?” His eyes opened and he saw his beloved Rose.

“Doctor, I have to get you out of here. I’m taking you back to the TARDIS. I want you to go into a healing coma but Doctor please, please open our bond if you can. We need to be together now. The Queen is not a telepath and the grub people won’t hurt us!” 

The Doctor’s eyes slid closed and she saw his subtle nod and knew how much that simple gesture had taken out of him. Within a few minutes she felt him open their connection and relief flooded over their bond although the effort left him panting in pain. “Sleep my Doctor, I love you and I’m getting you out of here.” His mental torture, because he was convinced he’d lost her, began to dissipate but more than that he now wanted to fight to get better. He didn’t want her to be left alone. He knew the only escape from that sorrow was death. Rose understood he’d rather have died than lived without her. Even though his physical pain was staggering he wanted to conquer it now and he slipped into a healing coma. 

Rose ran to Bram at the access tunnel hatch and reached her hand up so she could connect with him. “Bram he’s near death,” she whispered, her voice shaking. “We need to get him out of here.”

“Understood. There, over by the closet is an emergency escape the Queen made. The wall is an illusion. I’ll have some of my people meet you outside to help pull him to your ship. Can you pull him on the mattress to the exit?”

“Nothing will stop me! Bram can you get the children to the TARDIS? You and Perta can stay safely there. Nothing can breach that ship’s walls. There’s lots of food there and they’ll be safe.”

“Sounds like a plan! Good luck Rose. We’ll bring the children once you get there.”

Rose grabbed the Doctor’s suit and tossed it on the bed, noticing the belt that generated the protective shields was among his clothes. She bet that he had taken it off himself and not defended himself during his torture because he was prohibited from disobeying her orders. Grabbing the blood soaked mattress she pulled it with all her might sliding it slowly over the edge of the pallet, gradually down to the floor so she minimized the pain to the Doctor. She turned to find that her proximity to the closet activated the opening to the outside. Wrestling the mattress through the hole in the wall to the outside, she was so grateful to find she was within sight of the TARDIS. In her mind she swore to the captive minds, we’re coming for you and we’re going to free you and take each and everyone of you home and Nathaniel too.

As she turned to grab the mattress with the Doctor still asleep on it, four grub people emerged from the shadows each grabbing the mattress. The TARDIS opened her double doors and they pulled him inside. Now that their bond was reestablished she could hear the TARDIS’s soft, sad wails for her pilot and friend. The great ship hurt like the Doctor. Placing her hand on a coral strut Rose shared her grief. When she turned one of the grub people had it’s hand up in a request for communication. She touched it’s grabber. 

“We are grateful you saved our children. Let us carry him to his place here before we leave to get the children.” Gently they carried the Doctor on the soiled mattress down the corridor to their room. There, with great care, they gently lifted him from his soiled bed onto the fresh linens of their bed without waking him from his healing sleep. The grub people explained they would return the soiled mattress to the Queen’s room and remove any tracks from their escape and then return with the children.

After they left Rose grabbed a jar of the pink salve and raced to their room. Soothing him over their bond, whispering her fealty and eagerness to see him well again, she accompanied her healing thoughts with a gentle, tender washing to remove his blood and the bitch’s filth from her Time Lord. Then she applied the soothing salve to his battered body, all the parts of him she loved so well. She had experienced it’s ‘feel good’ properties and was heartened to see his face relax. Rose stopped short of applying the salve to open wounds including his sex. It’s not that she didn’t want to but she had to wait until the healing sleep did it’s work. Tucking him in and leaving a cold glass of water for him she stayed in his mind alert for anything he might need and curled herself around his essence to provide what comfort she could. Her body, however, left to get ready for 23 bouncing baby grubs. Apparently Prawnians liked sleeping in hammocks that swung close to soft flooring incase baby Prawns fell out. She was tired and just wanted to get everyone settled so she could take care of the Doctor and keep him safe.

Small groups of baby prawns were shuttled stealthily, and one group at a time, into the TARDIS. Each group of babies bounced through the console room with their escorts, not in the least impressed with the size inside the wondrous ship, but they were immensely impressed with the sounds the metal grid-work floor made. To baby Prawns this was merely another place to play and the interesting sounds from the floor inspired furious bouncing making them resemble popping corn jumping into puddles as they were slowly herded down the corridor. Rose kept her eyes on the monitor looking out for the safe arrival of each group. Once all the groups were safely inside, they settled in a large room with Perta and Bram and 25 hammocks. Rose told Bram to touch the ship and telepathically communicate his needs re bathroom facilities and anything else they may need including if they needed her. Explaining she needed to attend to the Doctor and rest, she told him she estimated it would take at least two days for the Doctor to wake from his healing sleep. Bram and Perta were beyond grateful to Rose for rescuing their young and for providing save refuge. Everyone parted tired but happy. Rose hurried to their room and ripped her clothes off tossing them in the wash bin, careful to set aside the sonic. She showered, brushed her teeth and slipped into bed, the sonic carefully placed into the bedside drawer. 

Rose cast her gaze over his sleeping form, closing her eyes briefly to thank whatever power it was in this universe that had spared him. She observed him asleep, spreadeagled across the bed, no doubt in part, because his dangly bits were sore. No one feature made the Doctor handsome, though his eyes came close and she longed for them to open. Rose loved the color of his eyes, but she knew from experience that his eyes would be beautiful in any color because it wasn’t really the color so much as the intensity, the honesty and the gentleness that shone from his eyes. Those eyes reflected who he was inside, a man of great spirit and noble ways and she loved him beyond understanding. Tears slid down her face as she looked for signs he was healing before she allowed herself to sleep. The improvements were minimal but they were there. Satisfied he was improving she curled toward him taking his hand in hers determined not to disturb his posture. They were together, her presence in his mind would help him she knew and she finally drifted toward sleep.


	10. Chapter 10

When Rose woke the Doctor was still asleep in the same position. She got out of bed and walked over to his side of the bed, examining him closely. Noting that there were now clear signs of improvement, her heart jumped for joy. She peeked between his legs and found improvement there too but there remained significant bruising and swelling but at least he was whole again. After her morning routine she applied the pink salve to the newly healed areas short of his privates which were too tender and sore. Then she got dressed replacing the Doctor’s glass of water, kissing his lips lightly and returning the sonic to her bra. Just as she was set to leave in order to check in with Bram and Perta, she stopped dead in her tracks as the Doctor called for her telepathically.

“Rose? Rose?” he called, his voice an echoing whisper in her mind. “Is it true you’re with me, alive?”

Rose didn’t know he could communicate while in a healing trance but her heart skipped a beat and she responded immediately, both in his mind and with her voice to reinforce that she was present and near to him. “Course I’m alive silly and don’t you worry. I’ve rescued you AGAIN! You’re safe in the TARDIS and I want you to rest. I’m looking after you and I love you Doctor.”

On his face she saw the wisp of a smile at her feigned annoyance about another rescue but she could also tell he knew why she had done it, that she wanted to give him proof it was her by using one of her distinctly personal ways of teasing him. She heard him whisper, “I love you too Rose. See you soon.” Then he drifted away.

“Not if I see you first,” Rose murmured looking at him fondly, squeezing his hand.

Her heart soaring, she hummed a little ditty as she left the room and went to find her guests. Arriving at their room and knocking lightly she entered. Looking around she noted the TARDIS had created a floor with the spongy, squishy quality of a gym mat. She saw all her guests were still in their hammocks but before she could silently back out of the room the baby grubs started tumbling from their hammocks, chirping and bouncing, higher than usual due to the gym floor. Before long they were surrounding her tumbling over each other, chirping happily and ready for their next adventure. Apparently baby grubs were unfailingly cheerful. Rose couldn’t wait for the Doctor to see them.

Bram told her that the ship had alerted him during the evening that some of his people were at the door with a status report.

“Bram are you not worried that the Queen could show up in disguise, like she did before? It would be disastrous if she got in this ship. Talk about building an empire, she could do it single handedly with this ship. The Doctor and I have a firm rule that we never, ever leave the door open. I should have explained all this last night but I was so worried about the Doctor. I’m sorry Bram. It’s my fault. Did they come inside?”

Bram’s eyes widened in surprise at this information. “Oh my, I will most definitely respect that rule in future! Two came to the ship and they didn’t come inside. I went out to them but the door was briefly left open so I could get back in. I am sure they were not compromised and I told them everyone is to behave as normal with the Queen because we needed a few days to plan. I also told them they should assume they’d be watched once the Queen discovered the Doctor was gone. For future communication I’ll be sure to go to them.”

“Okay that was good advice and thanks Bram,” Rose replied with a reassuring smile. “I’ll check the ship’s systems to be sure but sounds like no harm was done. it means that as soon as the Queen realizes the Doctor is gone she is probably going to make an appearance here. Couldn’t she conjure some sort of barrier between us and your people.”

Bram considered that for a moment and then thoughtfully offered his view, “She could do that but she’d need the captured brains to pull it off because a large illusion needs telepaths to project it and maintain it and the Queen can’t do that because she’s not a telepath. The captured telepaths are already overextended, exhausted really. Also, it would be an illusion, not real. It’s like the restaurant, merely an illusion except for the food the Doctor ate. So. If she created a barrier around the ship it wouldn’t be real. We could get through it.” 

Rose nodded her understanding and said, “I gotta say though, her planted suggestions seem quite powerful compared to the illusions. The Doctor was wearing that device that I told you about that generates force fields. Whatever orders she planted were powerful enough he was compelled to remove a non lethal belt. Tell me, the building we were in is real and just hidden behind an illusion, right?”

Bram nodded and Rose said, “The Doctor was able to see the illusion, to find a way in, and we assumed the captured brains were helping us.”

“Well,” Bram said, “The captured minds would certainly have a motive for helping you so it’s certainly possible they would want to be allies.”

“Yeah, we need to free their minds of the Queen’s planted instructions but keep them connected for a bit to keep the Queen thinking she’s in control!”

Rose walked to the console typing her questions for the ship into the keyboard and watching the monitor for her reply. She was shown a video recording of Bram with two of the disguised Prawnians. They were touching hands and their communication was short just like Bram said. The TARDIS confirmed there had been no other visitors and that she would alert her if the Queen or anyone else showed up. Rose then asked the great ship what 1756 was for and the answer was, as the Doctor would say, textbook enigmatic. The words scrolling down the screen were ! Rose sighed in frustration but she had the assurance from the ship it had to be this way and that she had to trust things would become clear. Rose put her hands on the console and conveyed her thanks.

“Looks like everything checks out Bram and the ship will warn us if anyone approaches. Now give me a few minutes to get a nosh, I’m starving and I’ll come get you and Perta. I cannot wait to see how the children do with the zero gravity room!”

Finally all the babies were herded into the room and Rose gradually turned the gravity off. As the children began to slowly rise in the air, Bram and Perta too, Rose could hear their sounds of wonder and she smiled as the babies started using their grabbers and legs to move around the room. Some enjoyed slowly spinning in circles, some bounced off the walls and some hooked each other’s grabbers and drifted around together. It was play on steroids and extremely comical to watch their joyful experimentation. Rose watched Bram and Perta briefly as they held each other’s grabbers and drifted slowly around with their eyes closed. Clearly it was a big job looking out for 23 grub babies and they were taking advantage of the moment and the feeling.

Enjoying the entertaining spectacle before her, Rose was interrupted by the Doctor stirring to wakefulness. She immediately signalled Bram who drifted over by flapping his grabbers until he could hold her hand. 

“Bram, I have to attend to the Doctor. When you’re ready use this handle to anchor yourself and slowly, very slowly lower this toggle and you will all gradually drift down to the floor.” Bram nodded and then drifted off for more relaxation.

Rose turned and raced to their room. 

His eyes blinked open and he was instantly alert, his brain processing multiple inputs from his senses, and his mind absorbing multiple data from time and space. He was in his TARDIS and he was in their bed. Rose was there in his mind and he breathed a sigh of relief. He hadn’t imagined it. His brilliant pink and yellow girl had saved him AGAIN and that made him smile. As he picked up her rapidly approaching footfalls pounding down the corridor he greeted his ship whose relief filled him and then he pushed away the memories of his torture.

Barrelling into the room Rose called his name brushing tears away as she saw his soft brown eyes and his ecstatic smile. That smile personified joy and he always had that look when they’d been separated and he first set eyes on her again. His arms raised and his fingers wiggled in a come here welcome. She hurried over and crawled on the bed, embracing him and kissing his face all over as he giggled in delight. The Doctor rarely giggled, only when the right combination of delight and humour struck him and Rose loved it when that happened.

Finally Rose relented and demanded, “Tell me everything about how you’re feeling. Oh Doctor, when I found you it was terrible. You were so, so .... hurt! I should have come get you sooner. I’m so sorry Doctor, so, so sorry,” Rose sobbed, tears running down her cheeks.

Hugging her to him he shushed her softly letting her cry herself out. He reflected on the ease with which the Queen had convinced him his Rose was dead and nearly robbed him of her warm body next to him, her comforting scent and the joy of her mind in his. But Rose had saved him and he was already processing some of what he had learned from the Queen. She had weaknesses and he intended to exploit them.

Turning his attention to reassuring Rose he whispered in her ear, “I’m a lot better Rose, still healing but I need to eat and rest a bit more and I’ll be fully recovered. Thank you Rose, my brave beautiful girl. Seeing your face, feeling you in my mind, knowing it was you, truly you, was all I needed. I love you Rose.” He kissed her lips softly and Rose bathed in his tender regard. 

After Rose came back with tea and banana pancakes the Doctor inhaled his food and Rose watched him immensely pleased. Then the Doctor sat up on the bed cross legged and asked Rose to share her adventures. He giggled again at the images in her mind of the baby grubs jumping up and down on the TARDIS console room floor, took in the discoveries from her conversations with Bram, nodding his understanding. Finally they were caught up on what had happened to Rose.

Taking her hands in his he looked her in the eye and reminded her of the reality they were facing. “Rose you were brilliant, absolutely brilliant. I am so proud of you! My ship is full of refugees and friends thanks to you so now is the time to discuss the enemy in your midst.”

Rose looked at him puzzled until she realized what he meant. “You?” she asked.

He nodded. “We have to face facts Rose. I am compromised and can’t be trusted.”

Rose nodded, never one to ignore reality, and noted, “That may be true Doctor but it doesn’t mean we can’t uncompromise you.” Deep in thought Rose tapped her fingers on her chest marshalling her thoughts. The Doctor saw the moment inspiration struck. 

“Imagine you have a patient who presents evidence that compulsions have been placed in his brain against his will by an outside force. What would you do as a Doctor to assess, diagnose and treat such a patient?”

The Doctor smiled ecstatically at her. “Oh you are clever Rose. Okay, I’m game. If he was my patient I would have baseline scans of the individual, including brain scans. I would first look at the scans for changes in the before and after scans. Assuming there are differences I’d look for the chemical signatures of the changes. From there it should be possible to determine counteracting protocols.”

“All right then we have a place to start!” Rose crowed clapping her hands. “Let’s crack on Doctor.


	11. Chapter 11

The Doctor dressed but not with his usual speed and precision. She could tell his bits were still sore and she shivered remembering how close she came to losing him. As they walked towards the infirmary she squeezed his hand noting his tentative gait. 

“I’ll be back to normal by the end of the day Rose.” He stopped and faced her, cupping her cheek and the intense regard for her she saw shining in his chocolate eyes drew her to his arms. “I thought of you Rose when she was working me over. Helpless to defend myself I hid in you, remembering how happy you make me. I remembered the words you gave to me and those I gave to you when we bonded and I remembered your face that brings light to my life and it helped me endure. When I thought you were dead and I lost hope, I longed to see you again.” He kissed her then and showed her his memories of their bodies entwined, her face beautiful in ecstasy, her legs wrapped around him and she was lost in him. Slowly he ended it. Then he whispered, “I want to feel pleasure with my wife again. Is that okay Rose?”

Dazed from the kiss Rose struggled to get her bearings finally saying, “Oh yes! I’m ready. Anytime really or later...”. The Doctor smiled, turning and attempting to pull her down the corridor. But she didn’t budge and he turned back puzzled to see what was the problem. She was standing stock still with a look of horror on her face and she was shaking.

He grabbed her by the shoulders, shaking her slightly, “What is it Rose, what’s wrong?”

“Doctor,” she whispered, “did you tell her, did she force you to tell her?”

“Tell her what?” the Doctor asked confused.

“Your true name,” Rose whispered as though someone might hear.

Folding her in his arms he reassured her, “No Rose, but you know if she had ordered me I would have told her so you were right to be worried but I couldn’t have told her.”

Now Rose was puzzled, “What? That doesn’t make sense!”

Swaying her gently back and forth in his arms he explained, “Rose, that night, the night we bonded, the best night of my lives by the way, I didn’t just tell you my true name, I gave you my name. I no longer remember it. Only when you whisper it to me in my mind do I remember it and answer to it. Only you have the power of my name.”

“Really?” she asked her eyes wide with surprise.

“Yep!” he replied, popping the ‘p’.

 

“By the way, I think I know what the Queen is and if I am right that gives us clues as to how to defeat her,” his eyes glinted with excitement as they resumed their trek to the infirmary. “And I noticed things about her. We need to make a plan Rose!”

Now that’s more like it thought Rose. She noticed the set of his shoulders was more like him and overall she felt the energy and authority he normally projected returning.

“Spill Doctor, what have you learned?” Rose asked, her smile wide and her gaze full of admiration for this alien she loved. 

“I think she is Herkoven, a race that existed before this reality. Gallifrey was newly formed in the heavens and my people were just crawling out of the primordial slime when the Carrionites and the Herkovens existed. They both had advanced to the point where they could manipulate the quantum field directly. You see all around us exists a quantum field of endless possibilities and potentials. In our universe we affect and manipulate the quantum field, to a more limited extent, with our dreams, hopes and conscious efforts to build machines, social structures, political systems and the like in order to influence the field to achieve what we want. But the Herkovens and the Carrionites can directly manipulate it at the subatomic level. They could create and recreate reality. It was awesome power and the only other species that existed in the before times, powerful enough to stop them, were the Eternals. Ancient documents found by my people eons later indicate that the Eternals banished both the Carrionites and the Herkovens to the Deep Darkness. According to Bram, the Queen came from the spaces in between.”

Rose nodded remembering.

“Rose, I think the spaces in between and the Deep Darkness are one and the same, something my people call the void or, like Bram said, the space in between universes. And, since I am the only Time Lord left to close breaches between our universe and the Void, I’m extrapolating that this Herkoven escaped through a breach I haven’t yet fixed and set up shop here.”

“But Doctor how does any of that help us fight her?” Rose asked.

The Doctor smiled at her impatience. “Well, the question is why hasn’t she been able to do much, much more? They normally carried their power source with them in the form of an amulet or talisman which they create from the quantum field, it’s atomic structure changed into a powerful amplifier. The talisman amplifies their abilities but whatever her talisman is, it’s not very powerful. She needs all those captured telepaths to fuel and project many of her illusions. Herkovens were up to ten feet tall with large heads. Her appearance is no doubt an illusion powered by her talisman as are the orders she plants in the minds of her victims. Most likely she is close to the limits of her power just maintaining these deceptions.”

Thinking things over Rose offered confirmation, “Bram confirmed she relies on the captured telepaths to maintain other illusions mostly those that help trap new telepaths. If we destroy her talisman will it end the hold she has on you?”

“She went to the trouble of capturing and enslaving those telepathic minds so she definitely needs them and has limits to her power but I wouldn’t assume she doesn’t have some additional power in reserve with that talisman. She is cunning and wouldn’t reveal her limits. The point is that she does have limits. If she didn’t, she’d be running the whole show as it’s the best way to remove her current vulnerabilities what with weakened and overtired telepaths and her reliance on the grub people for the secretions she needs to plant her orders.” The Doctor paused to think about Rose’s question. 

“To be honest, I am not sure whether destruction of the talisman would end the orders she planted in my brain. I may know more after I look at the brain scans. I feel like some of her orders are fading as though I might be able to resist them.”

“Yeah,” Rose responded, “Bram said she has to reinforce her orders from time to time and sometimes she adds new orders, in both cases she has to use the grub secretions to reach the victims’ minds because the power of her orders fade over time.”

“Yes I think that is the case but the strength of her orders depends on how important they are to her. Trust me, orders like ‘obey me’ are strongly reinforced to last the longest.”

“Yeah that makes sense,” Rose acknowledged, “still, destroying her talisman would stop her from doing more damage. Maybe it’s her belt or that thing on her forehead.”

“Maybe, or it could be something hidden underneath that thing she wears, something we couldn’t easily see. Thanks to you we now have an army of allies to watch her and report back. There will be signs that will give us clues about where or what the talisman is. Come on, let’s look at these brain scans!” 

It took a considerable amount of experimentation with color highlighting and fiddling with contrast to isolate the tampering in his brain. “See here Rose!” Rose came up beside him in front of the light panel illuminator on which he had arranged several scans of his brain.

“Why so many scans Doctor?”

Pointing to the first scan he explained, “The TARDIS scans me every day. This one is before we made planetfall. Think of it as the baseline scan. This one...is from that first night.” He didn’t want to remind Rose of that night but once again she reassured him by quietly slipping her hand in his. “That is the night they got in my mind and orders were planted. You can see the dark blemishes localized in the hypothalamus which controls the autonomic nervous systems. You’ll recall I was able to change the chemical composition of the secretions and prevent their re entry and here we see the proof of that in this scan which was taken soon after you brought me back from the Queen. 

Rose studied the scan comparing it with the previous scan. She looked at the Doctor with excitement noting, “It’s different. The blemishes, some are slightly faded!”

Nodding his agreement, the Doctor noted, “and then there’s this one taken after my healing sleep.”

Looking closely, Rose compared back and forth until she declared, “it’s blemishes are even more faded but a few dark ones, although faded, do not seem to have faded as fast as others.”

“Exactly Rose! The good news is that she may have tortured me but she was unable to use the secretions to get in my mind again to reinforce her control. The bad news is that the most problematic orders are no doubt those that are darkest on that scan,” he finished declaratively.

“Doctor, remember that first night when you were overcome, we thought the grub people had attacked you and you explained that they had a real appetite for sexual sensation?” 

The Doctor nodded his remembrance. Rose continued, “Now we know it wasn’t the grub people, who are called Prawnians, by the way, does it mean it was the Queen who had those appetites?”

“Yes, it was and I had time to think about that and my conclusions are not encouraging. She can only get in the mind with the help of the Prawnians and only through the autonomic nervous system which is a very good thing as it turns out. The autonomic nervous system is run out of the part of the brain known as the hypothalamus which is where she planted her orders. What’s important about that is she did not get to the higher reasoning centres of my brain. While in the hypothalamus she saw my body’s automatic responses when I am with you and it sidetracked her. She wanted to experience sex. And we saw how easily she used us. I know it sounds heartless Rose but it was a blessing in disguise.”

“Oh my gawd,” Rose declared, “she can’t get in the hypo place on her own but once the Prawnians get her in she can read it, like a telepath!”

“Yes, my bright and brilliant Rose. Now imagine she could get into the higher reasoning centres of my brain. Of course she would encounter my shields and all she’d have to do is simply order me to lower them and she would have unfettered access to what I know! Think what she could do with my mind and my ship!”

Her mouth open in shock at the frightening implications she asked, “I thought you said you could zap the blemishes with a chemical cure,” she asked hopefully.

“If they were chemical in nature, I could Rose. But these blemishes are quantum manipulations. We have to wait til they fade.”

“Doctor, why does she want your sperm? Is it to breed Time Lords?”

Looking at her sadly he shook his head. “Nahhh, that would take too long to be of practical use to her. Oh no, it’s far worse than that Rose. She stole my sperm to analyze my TNA. She is looking to isolate the gene for telepathy. She wants to become a telepath, and with her new abilities she would not need the Prawnians nor the captured telepaths. She would obliterate my shields, get me to do whatever she wanted and pilot my ship.”

“But she freaked out at your time sense. Wouldn’t that stop her?”

“Maybe but I suspect not for long.”

“How much time do we have Doctor?” Rose asked clearly shocked and scared.

“I don’t know her skills and facilities but to be safe we need to assume two days max,” he replied forthrightly


	12. Chapter 12

“Rose, this Herkoven uses words and hand motions which Bram describes as sorcery but it’s really not. It’s science.”

“I believe you Doctor but considering what we’re up against, why is that information important?” Rose demanded, clearly desperate to find anything that could help them and feeling this information fell short. “Doctor, we can’t allow her to become a telepath and we most definitely cannot allow her to access your brain and get the TARDIS. It would be a disaster.” She was walking back and forth chewing on her thumb and clearly agitated. With his acute vision he could see the tremors in her hands.

Knowing she was upset, feeling scared and alone because he was compromised, the Doctor stepped closer listening to her intently because he knew it reassured her when he ‘looked’ like he was really listening to her. Of course he always listened to her, even when he was doing ten other things, but to her that didn’t look like he was listening. Sometimes she needed to see what listening looked like from an Earth point of view, the way a concerned Earth man would look at and listen to her. She never asked for much and he was more than happy to give her his undivided attention. She was upset and scared and that was because of him. On this trip alone he had raped her, left her alone to her own devices and he’d almost died! Yet she had earned the help of the locals, saved their children, saved his sorry ass. and still loved him. She was such a giving soul. So he did nothing but listen to her, studying her micro expressions, her body language and the sounds of her voice. She wanted to know if they had a realistic chance of defeating the Herkoven. 

Softly he responded to her need, “The Queen’s ability to activate the orders she plants, relies on words, words that are woven into the quantum field at the subatomic level so that the field collapses into the reality the word represents. The more word orders, the more brains, the greater the need for structure in the quantum field. Each word is linked to the other words and is built into a structure with an anagram of the principal word at the apex of the structure. That anagram is densely tied into the field, which takes a very long time to do, while the words lower in the structure are more easily joined. But the whole structure is dependent on the one word, the anagram at the top. If we knew what that word was we could translate the anagram into the right word and destroy the whole structure and her power over others. 

“What are all the hand motions for then,” Rose asked still taking in what he had just explained and no less scared.

“She whispers words when moving her hands so I believe the hand movements activate and focus her talisman to access the quantum structure. I noticed she always touched her chest briefly before her hand motions began. Maybe an amulet or something under her body suit I am guessing.”

Rose nodded but the Doctor could see her fighting spirit was nowhere to be found.

“Rose I remember something else about the Herkovens. They cannot abide copper but even worse is their abhorrence of iron!”

He paused studying her, hoping to see her natural enthusiasm resurface although he knew he was being unfair in his expectations. She looked up at him with pleading eyes.

“Doctor, I can’t lose you and even more than that l can’t bear the thought of what she did to you. You almost died and when I found you....oh Doctor you were in such pain, it was horrible!” Rose paused, a mournful sob escaping her lips. “You don’t just recover from torture like that! You can’t just walk into another session with her!” Tears ran down her eyes and she was trembling violently. The Doctor pulled her into his embrace letting his scent and his soothing voice wash over her. He was on the verge of tears himself, tears of thankfulness for his pink and yellow girl currently close to a breakdown because of her concern for him. It dawned on him she was not scared for herself but for him. He was so bloody thick! He really didn’t deserve her.

“Rose sweetheart, I almost died because I thought you were dead and I didn’t want to live without you. I’ve been tortured before Rose but living without you... I need you Rose.” Hugging her tightly he blinked rapidly to prevent his tears from falling.

Murmuring into his chest Rose covered his hearts with her hands and said, “Doctor, she could use you and the TARDIS to bring this universe to it’s knees. It’s too big of a risk! Why don’t we take the Prawnians with us and just leave? You could place a warning buoy in orbit to ward off other travellers and we wait for her orders to fade, please?”

“Rose,” he explained, “I agree that the risks are great but not near as great if we strike early, before she’s ready. She knows we’re licking our wounds and she won’t expect it. We’ll have the element of surprise. And it’s not easy to identify the telepathy gene in TNA. It’s a triple string with the third string constantly shifting due to my relationship with time. The telepathy gene is on that string. Even if she’s really experienced it will be a significant challenge. And finally, if we leave, what of the eighty or so captured telepaths? They have no chance if we leave.”

Lifting her off the floor she wrapped her legs around his waist and laid her head on his shoulder. He held her to him with his hands supporting her under her bum. “Rose Tyler if I’ve learned anything from all my mistakes it’s that doing the right thing is what counts and you ignore that path at your peril. Try to escape your obligations and you pay a price as your hearts slowly harden. You don’t notice at first as indifference creeps into colouring your choices until one day you rationalize turning your back on cries for help, then it becomes easier to take advantage and then the day comes when you can’t look each other in the eye. I am blessed to see your soul Rose because you are brave and kind and always giving of yourself. I want you to know that you are the light of my lives and you always will be. Now, I’m going to need your help in this fight. We’re going to need coordination and logistical support from the TARDIS. You game?”

Ignoring his request she continued, “But Doctor we’ve run away before, sometimes!” she cajoled in his ear.

“Yes that’s true but those situations were different luv. Sometimes the brave choice is to walk away. When a situation is intractable, when every move is a bad move, it’s best to take yourself out of the equation. Rose, there are times for meeting fire with fire, and this is one of those times. I’m sorry luv but this fight must be fought.”

She hugged him fiercely knowing his integrity was a large part of his character and that was a large part of what drew her to him. “I’m staying with you Doctor, forever,” she sniffed, “I would follow you to the gates of hell and beyond. I would never leave you alone to fight and I could never abandon you or those who need our help! Rose clung to him looking up at him with tear stained eyes. “I promised Nathaniel we’d take him home and the others too. You’re right we can’t leave. Let’s find Bram, fill him in and make a plan.”

The Doctor let her down gently and was surprised when she grabbed his shirt in her fist. “If you think I bought that rubbish about staying behind to provide ‘coordination and logistical support’ you’ve got another thing coming Mister!”

Light hearted once again and holding hands they headed down the corridor together. Whatever terrors lay ahead they would face them together.

As Rose expected there was total pandemonium when the Doctor met the grub babies. Initially when he met Perta and Bram he conversed with them telepathically while the grub babies bobbed up and down around his feet. He was a new curiosity after all and she was old hat. After thanking Bram and Perta for their help and welcoming them to his ship he plopped down sitting cross legged amongst the grub babies pulling treasures from his pockets to the rising sounds of chirping and to bobbing that was turning into hopping excitement. 

It warmed Rose’s heart to realize he must have prepared for this meeting with the babies. From his pockets he pulled little spongy balls, toys with handles that when turned made interesting sounds and kaleidoscopes which the babies found mesmerizing. He was surrounded by grub babies, some precariously balanced on his shoulders, some trying to look in his pockets and the rest looking at him with awe. He didn’t let any of them fall and they all adored him. Everyone loved the Doctor thought Rose and he deserved it. But not everyone knew the Doctor loved the young. He lit up like a Christmas tree when young children, even babies were around. 

“Rose,” he would say, “it’s critical parents indulge their children’s curiosity, that they let them experience wonder, let them explore and teach them respect for others. Four things, that’s all and then they’ll be fine Rose.” 

She smiled thinking that’s exactly what he was doing with the grub babies as she watched them flinging their spongy balls about, twirling the handles and listening to the sounds their toys made and walking into each other while peering into their kaleidoscopes. It was totally bonkers! Finally it was time to get together with Bram and make their plan. The grub babies didn’t want him to leave.

Sitting together, holding hands and grabbers, looking as though they were in a prayer meeting and as far as Rose was concerned that wasn’t a bad idea, they talked telepathically to complete their plan. Bram was to get the rest of the Prawnians to keep the Queen under surveillance. Where was the talisman? Also they were to dot the captured telepaths but ask them to keep up the ruse and stay connected. They were also asked to apply the pink salve to their bedsores to give them some immediate relief and get them ready to be moved to the ship. The following morning they would begin disconnecting them. If their plan was successful they would be cared for in the TARDIS infirmary until they were strong enough to be taken home.

The Doctor was to produce iron dust and filings they would keep in their pockets. As well, they would each wear their belts with their perception filters on. Most likely the Doctor would be ordered to take his off because the Queen would feel the time dilation effect but hopefully he would be left with the protection of the iron filings because deep within his transdimensional pocket she would not sense the filings. The iron wouldn’t kill her, just hold her at a distance, therefore, the Doctor felt he could thwart her prohibitions. Furthermore, he was sure he could use the iron against her before she could order him not to because she wouldn’t be expecting it. If he covered her in a cloud of iron dust she would be incapacitated and that would give him a chance to get the talisman. If he got that talisman he would destroy it and hopefully they would all be free of her planted orders. Then he would enter her mind, not to destroy her, but to find the anagram. 

In case the Doctor was unsuccessful in getting the anagram, Rose was to review all the words the Queen had said, every one of which the Doctor remembered, for clues to what might be the anagram. They all knew the Queen may not have spoken the anagram but it was judged worthwhile to have the TARDIS run through the permutations of all the words she had used. Perhaps an obvious word candidate would surface. The Queen was haughty and dismissive of those who served her seeing them as too stupid to require being cautious around them. It was a long shot but worth the effort. Rose was also on standby to provide additional iron but also she would be packing the repellent power of her belt and since she wasn’t compromised she could back the Queen into a corner if need be.

The assault would begin the following morning early. All three of them would be in the access tunnels to get intelligence from the Prawnians before the operation began. They went their separate ways to prepare for what was to come.

Later in the shower Rose rubbed her eyes, sore from studying the many permutations of the words the Queen had used. She found no likely anagram words. Hearing the door of their bedroom open and the Doctor whistling, she smiled thinking of him undressing. It was a sight she loved to watch. His body was beautiful, lithe, strong and when he moved and his musculature surfaced she always watched mesmerized. His chest had just enough hair and a trail of it trekked down past his taut stomach leading the eyes to his impressive attributes. 

When they were in public together he held her hand and would casually throw his arm around her shoulders once in a while but he rarely kissed her in public. For him it was more than a matter of decorum or propriety, although that was part of it. No, it was for her protection, reducing the odds his enemies would see her as critical to him, take her and hurt her, just to get at him. Mind you, his carefully constructed modus operandi fell apart at the seams the minute another male tried to pull her. Then he would appear out of nowhere and hold her to him at the waist and growl, literally growl at the predator moving in on what was his. In all other aspects of their life together he respected her freedoms but other males he did not tolerate and if she was honest she liked it. 

But when they were alone together and naked he always had an erection around her, not because he expected her to have sex, he was erect because together in their room he always wanted her. And he was completely open, uninhibited, game to try any sexual experimentation although truth be told she didn’t have much experience to offer. He had much more than her and he understood anatomy and nerves and stuff. He was an explorer and, therefore, a brilliant lover and she had not experienced anything so absolutely satisfying as the Doctor making love to her. 

But she had at least brought one practice to their bed that he’d never experienced before. He’d never had oral sex before, although he was a Mozart at giving it. She found it odd because he must have known about it but she never asked him why because she didn’t really want to know about his previous partners. She remembered how he’d shivered and groaned when he exploded in her mouth that first time, astonished she’d allowed him this pleasure. And then there was the telepathy. Sex with a telepath, well you couldn’t lose. You trembled and spasmed with orgasm when he did because you experienced everything he did. Just thinking about it she wanted him and she listened for him knowing he was taking 8.3 seconds to fold his suit and then the door to the ensuite slammed open and in two strides he had his body wrapped around her, their lips and tongues locked and their minds merged in passion and graceful surrender.

Ensnared by the scent of each other, their hands and bodies slick and sliding, the blood pounded in their ears and rushed to engorge his length, plump her lips and folds and stiffen her nipples. Sensations ricocheted one to the other from nipples licked and sucked, from the head of his cock sliding against her belly, from her swirling tongue and hot mouth teasing, licking and sucking him, from his fingers and mouth circling her nub swirling and electrifying her primal lust for more. They fed on each other’s desire, each addicted to the intoxicating alchemy that powered their driving need to touch, to lick and suck and please until she was panting with the pounding urgency to feel his length and girth driving into her, until she demanded he take her, both drunk with need for each other.. Writhing on the floor of the shower calling his true name, her legs wrapped around him, they exploded together in an electrifying release that satisfied their bodies and renewed their souls. The urgency of their need satisfied they were left panting and languidly caressing each other as their bodies turned to jelly and they floated together through the stars. For a Time Lord an interesting side effect of orgasmic release was the coincident release of the telepathic mind which floated among the galaxies. He always offered her the sensation and the images and she had come to love being with him in this way. She knew he offered it as a gift and craved her being with him to experience the wonder with him. 

Eventually they got up, turned off the shower and dried off. They got ready for bed and Rose knew the Doctor was ready for more. To him they’d just had a snack and now he wanted the full meal. Suddenly a knock on the door startled them. With a towel around his waist he opened the door to find Bram agitated holding up his grabber seeking communication.

After Bram left the Doctor turned rapidly and started dressing. He looked at Rose who watched him full of questions.

“It’s the Queen, Rose. She’s outside!’


	13. Chapter 13

“Doctor, don’t go!” Rose pleaded jumping off the bed throwing her arms around him.

“Rose luv I have to go. She doesn’t know she has no effect on me while I’m in the TARDIS and I’d like to keep it that way. Besides there are tactical advantages if I go now,” he said kissing her forehead and stepping back to throw on his suit jacket.

“But Doctor, why is she here, why now? What about our plan?” she asked, the anguish on her face clearly apparent.

“She’s almost certainly here because she needs help with the telepath gene. I’m still compelled to obey her Rose so I’ll have to do it but this is an opportunity. I may still be subject to her orders but I can feel her hold on me weakening hour by hour. I might be able to modify the gene. Either way there’s no way I can do this in a day, even with my skills, so we stick with the plan,” he explained as he quickly donned his tie.

Rose noted a big bag of the iron filings went deep in his pocket and he put his belt on. 

Stepping forward he cupped her cheek and softly said, “Sweetheart, some advice from a Time Lord with a lot of experience with fear. It may create a lot of turmoil that makes you feel sick but it also makes you hyper aware. The trick is to dampen the turmoil and ride the awareness. You my Luv have faced down the Daleks and are a far braver soul then me. Your soul shines like a star. I’ve seen it Rose! You are your own master and your own strength will lead you through any fear. Follow the plan my love. Gotta go.”

Rose hurled on her robe and hurried down the corridor after him. “Doctor, if we figure out what the anagram is, what do we do, just yell out the translation?” she called out after him as he ran down the corridor.

“We need a tool, it’s silver coloured, the shape of a fat pen and put it on the right setting, point up and call the name,” he yelled over his shoulder.

Responding Rose asked, “Where is this tool?”

“Never mind Rose,” yelled the Doctor, “we’ll find it later.”

Knowing the Doctor would never leave such an important tactical detail to chance, she hated the sign of the Queen’s intrusion but she couldn’t help but feel encouraged by the fact he was starting to remember!

In the console room he ran to the door, slipping out and quickly closing it while turning on his belt. The Queen radiated an air of sneering superiority that did nothing to enhance her appearance but she did not order him to let her in the TARDIS. Suspecting it was her aversion to the ship’s time signature, he stood quietly waiting for her orders, noting the smugness that radiated from her metallic snake eyes. Briefly touching her chest, her hands moved channelling her talisman’s power as she murmured words.

Suddenly she spoke, “Remove the belt!” As Rose watched over the monitor the belt fell promptly to the ground. Holding her breath, afraid the Queen would order him to strip, Rose waited to see if the iron would be discovered. She hopped up and down in excitement when she saw things move along.

The Queen’s voice cracked out again, “Dance!”

Responding immediately, the Doctor broke into a freewheeling jig and each time he whirled around and faced the ship’s hidden recording cameras he winked, knowing Rose would be watching on the monitor. He knew the Queen was testing her hold on him and it was less than she knew. Using their bond, he reassured Rose that the Queen’s power was fading but he wanted to maintain the subterfuge for now.

As the Doctor followed the Queen with his hands behind his back and his head down, feigning submission, Rose saw him waggle his fingers at her. She felt much better until she saw the Queen’s next move.

“Crawl!” she barked.

Falling to his knees he followed her meekly.

“Steady on Rose,” he whispered in her mind, “apart from my knees I’ll be fine. Whatever I can do to convince her I’m in her thrall, the easier I can capitalize on the situation!”

Enraged that the witch was humiliating such a magnificent being as her Time Lord, Rose struggled to regain control. Adjusting the monitor and stroking the console Rose asked the TARDIS to play back the Queen in slowmo with a close up on her face, hands and chest. Perhaps it was the light enhancement the TARDIS provided, but Rose could see there was indeed something protruding under the body suit, oval shaped and connected to a chain. Asking the TARDIS to amplify the Queen’s words Rose listened intently, over and over and over. Thinking it would free her mind if she didn’t concentrate so hard she sprawled on the console bench, her legs and arms dangling freely and her mind drifting to the Doctor. While the TARDIS played the tape Rose drifted between wakefulness and sleep, until she shot upright and it hit her like a lightening bolt. She raced down the corridor to get dressed and grab the sonic. 

“You’re going down you bitch and you better keep your hands off him,” she thought.

He crawled behind her, but it wasn’t so bad because the path just happened to be fairly sandy which was a blessing, could be a lot worse. He had felt how angry Rose had been at his humiliation. But he didn’t care about that, a little humiliation he didn’t mind if it furthered his goals. Even better, he knew both the anagram and the translation. His acute hearing had picked up the word he needed from her mumbling and he had quickly worked out the translation while crawling along behind her. 

Knowing the required word was reassuring but it wasn’t in the least helpful. He needed a tool and like he’d told Rose, he knew what to do with it but he didn’t know what it was or where it was. How odd was that? Course it was understandable. Whatever the tool was, it would work and that meant the Queen couldn’t allow it and, therefore, another part of his brain had been manipulated. So for the moment he had to try and fool this Herkoven, lull her into a false sense of security. She knew he had overcome their attempts to get back in his brain and, therefore, she could not reinforce her orders but she didn’t know he was a Time Lord. Time Lords had not co-existed with the Herkovens. She had no idea his species had become as mighty as hers had been. And she did not know her orders would fade much more quickly than she expected. He could feel his brain working around the quantum manipulations she’d left there. Bram had told him that for most of the telepaths they needed a “top-up” every six days. It would not be that long for him.

Smiling to himself, his mind turned to Rose, his beautiful Rose. There was no circumstance whereby he wouldn’t have put himself in the line of fire to ensure Rose was not harmed by the Queen. Rose was his light, his wife and he loved her fiercely. She took away his loneliness. She loved him and shared his bed and every morning he woke and saw her sleeping face he was deliriously happy. Sometimes he stared at her for hours as she slept, revelling in her every snuffle and ready to receive her when she turned in her sleep to find his arms and snuggle. No matter what happened to him, if he had to, he would destroy the Queen with him in the fires of regeneration before he would allow her to hurt Rose. 

“How did you survive?” the Queen demanded.

“I heal quickly,” the Doctor replied curtly, hoping she wouldn’t ask if he had help.

“What species are you? What constellation?”

“Gallifreyan, Kasterborous,” he replied, a half truth but he enjoyed the small rebellion and he kept his voice steady and even.

Whirling around and looking down at him she hurled her order, “Stand Up!”

The Doctor stood, impassively looking at her.

“I have work for you. You will do precisely what I require nothing less and nothing more. You will be under surveillance every moment. I will know if you attempt to impede or sabotage the task or it’s progress.”

With a tiny dab of sarcasm and some manipulation on his part he replied stoically, “It is indeed fortunate I was not murdered at your hand lest I be unavailable to meet your....needs.”

It had worked! He had braced himself before the crack of her hand landed across his face. Owww he thought but not quite as bad as Jackie Tyler. He was of course shielding his thoughts from Rose. But in that instant of deliberately provoked touch, he had sensed several important thoughts from her. She was sexually hungry for a worthy male and he wondered if she was in some kind of Herkoven heat, probably not the best time to be a smart mouth. When he had refused her time and again he’d driven her to a murderous frenzy and paid the price for it. 

He learned another important thing he had been looking for and that was her complete lack of background in genetic manipulation. This was good news. She was assuming her order to obey hadn’t faded or weakened. He would obey alright and drive a truck through the subclauses of that order. He also picked up her fear. Afraid because she had almost killed him before realizing she needed him. And she knew she was running out of resources and if her gamble didn’t work she would be marooned here. If she were a telepath she could pillage his mind planting her orders with no need for the Prawnians but she had to act fast or her current hold on him would expire. As a telepath, she could control him directly whenever she wanted and she could use him to travel the stars until she found a base for the second empire of the Herkovens.

Except for one teeny, tiny thing. As a new telepath she would be no match for him. Her haughty self regard made her over confident. Without training from a young age she risked broadcasting everything she was thinking. Tactically that would be terrific for him. Her hubris kind of reminded him of his own people. They just couldn’t imagine they could be defeated. Mulling this thought over he realized he best not make the same mistake. What were the implications of a telepath who could manipulate the quantum field? He decided he needed to give it some thought. His brain raced through the analysis and he concluded it wouldn’t make a difference. She needed the talisman to direct the quantum field and if she were telepathic that wouldn’t change. But telepathy would make it easier to acquire and maintain slaves. 

Motioning her arms, the Queen and the Doctor watched as the wall in front of them dissolved and they stepped into a fully equipped laboratory. He realized immediately he had to question his assumptions. As he looked around he saw the bench where she had been working on his sperm and he knew instantly he dare not underestimate her again. He may have provoked her into the slap but he was now certain she would have found a way to touch him if he hadn’t. He played back the scene and realized the slight pause before she’d slapped him had been deliberate. During that pause, she had organized her thoughts to ensure he picked up the idea she knew nothing about biochemistry. She’d played him! As a result, he had assumed it would be easy to fool her. 

As he surveyed the bench he saw she had carefully attempted to erase the signs of how close she had come to isolating his telepathy gene. But he noticed the chemicals needed to do the job, while carefully replaced on the surrounding shelves, were each located at the front of those shelves. No laboratory would follow protocols that would place these particular chemicals in the most used positions on the closest shelves, not to mention those that should be refrigerated. She had gotten very close by trying many biochemical combinations. Now his room to manoeuvre and delay was considerably curtailed. 

He looked up and saw in her dead eyes, she knew he knew she needed more sperm. Her twisted smile made him feel sick.


	14. Chapter 14

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Doctor works to outwit the Queen and then asks Rose to help him produce sperm (ahem).

Realizing he had to buy time, the Doctor decided the truth was his best course for now. 

“You’ve found the right combination of reagents to stabilize the gene but you can’t hold the chromosome string steady without specific equipment. To do that you need a stasis field and a shielded chamber. If I could look over your equipment, I might be able to modify something you already have. 

“What kind of shield?” the Queen imperiously demanded.

He couldn’t allow her to figure out that the third chromosome string of his TNA gave him his time sense not to mention his regeneration abilities. He couldn’t allow that or he’d be forced to hand over more than a telepathy gene. He knew she had felt the effects of time dilation from his belt and from his brain the one time she’d gotten inside his mind but he didn’t think she understood his relationship with time.

From the ancient writings of the Time Lords, the Doctor remembered that Herkovens did not really relate to time. Their species created reduced entropy realities. Since the rest of the universe featured the gradual decline of all systems into disorder and rebirth, the co-existence of near zero entropy produced unacceptable stresses in the larger universe. That had been their downfall. Near zero entropy had been gradually destroying the laws by which the rest of the universe functioned, hence the Eternals expelled them to the void. But their concept of reality suggested they did not perceive time the way the rest of the universe did and that was something he could work to advantage. 

Relying on his remembrance, he lied in part, “My people are sensitive to space, the location of stars, galaxies and so on. Like many animals that can navigate by gravitational fields and always know where they are in space, Gallifreyans are the same. The shield is to isolate the chromosome string from the forces and effects of space so it will stop vibrating which is required to isolate and chemically remove the telepathy gene,” he explained impassively looking in all respects like he was under her influence. 

She was watching him closely. This one was special she thought. He was prime, a worthy mate until she found someone better. He was tall and she could see he carried power in his slim frame. But he possessed ancient knowledge and liquid silver intelligence too. 

What do the other genes on this third string do? the Queen demanded

Oh she was clever and he had to be very careful she did not discern his subterfuge.

“Most are dedicated to higher spatial awareness,” he explained tonelessly. “We ‘see’ and ‘sense’ complex geometry and we have greatly enhanced spatial perception. Other genes create the inter-relationships necessary to produce these abilities and of course the telepathy gene, which is really the ability to sense distances in space, in addition to mind communication.” He hoped she would buy it. 

“I sensed entropy going haywire in your mind. Do not lie to me! What was it?” she demanded studying him closely.

Stilling himself, remembering his lessons on control, he mastered his breathing and pulse including how fast he blinked his eyes. When he spoke it was with an even and steady voice, “I am a telepath. My species has this protection to repel mental attacks and it worked. With the telepathy gene you will have this protection as well.” 

She studied his face closely as she walked around him running her hand over his shoulder and down his back, a non too subtle sign she owned him. The Doctor remained zen-like with a casual air. Concluding he was telling the truth, the Queen turned her attention back to the spatial abilities he claimed Gallifreyans had. 

“Why should I restrict myself to the telepathy gene? Wouldn’t all the abilities you’ve described on this vibrating string be useful to me?” she petulantly sneered at him as though she had caught him in a deception.

In a monotone voice he replied, “They could be useful to you.”

“What would be required to give me these abilities?”

“It would require adding a third string to your DNA. While it’s possible, it could also be harmful to your current health and abilities. It would require a detailed genetic study of your DNA to avoid unexpected side effects up to and including possible death. At best speed such a study would take at least one month.”

“Could I acquire these abilities in some other way?” 

With no inflection in his voice and maintaining a slightly dazed expression he replied, “Worth considering, before you decide, is that many species have technology that rivals our spatial talents.” 

“How then do you fit telepathy onto my current chromosome string?”

“It is a relatively simple procedure by comparison. The tricky part is stabilizing the source. As far as the new host location, it is a simple matter of replacing a junk gene with the telepathy gene accompanied with the proper reagent to ensure attachment to the string.” 

The Queen knew enough about the subject to know this made sense. All species carried junk genes. And of course her people had to know about the structures of the universe in order to be capable of manipulating them. Unfortunately she didn’t have the time for a lengthy procedure because she’d lose control over him before the procedure could be completed. She worried about her continued control even with the simpler procedure but there was the female if she needed another means of coercion. She had initially seen her as unimportant but she had forced this Doctor to assault her. Perhaps this female travelled with him because they were mated. Even if she was just a crew mate he probably wouldn’t want her killed. She could be used to control him. But, in the meantime, she wanted to test him.

“I order you to tell me if you have been totally honest with me about these procedures.”

Bowing his head he answered her, “I have told you the truth about these procedures. I swear!” And he had told her the truth about the procedures he just hadn’t told her the whole truth about what his third string did. He learned an important lesson about framing future answers.

He stood waiting, obedience written in his posture and demeanour. Hoping fervently she wouldn’t pursue the subject of sperm, he considered the items he’d seen in the lab that he could modify into the equipment he required for the genetic work. He was desperate to plausibly delay as long as possible so Bram and Rose could implement their part of the plan and to buy himself time. With each passing hour he felt her power over him waning.

“Proceed,” she ordered with an impatient air, “with haste! Do not give me a reason to hurt her!” With that the Queen swept from the lab. The Doctor had no doubt there was no way out of the lab until she returned and even worse she knew about Rose. 

Racing around the lab, assuming he was under surveillance, he gathered together items to build a stasis chamber and shield. Before long he had a workbench covered with the carcasses from cannibalized equipment, nests of wild multi-coloured wires, soldered electronics and a bewildering array of tools. No one could say he wasn’t working diligently so he reached for Rose.

“Rose?”

“Doctor! Are you okay? What’s wrong?”

“I am fine Rose. I’m currently in a lab isolating the telepathy gene. The Queen has gone somewhere and I fear she knows she needs another insurance policy.”

“So you’re alone. Do we need to change the plan or something?”

“No, but stay hidden. She knows about you and I think she may be looking for you. Rose she won’t hesitate to hurt you or use you for leverage as soon as she thinks she can no longer trust her orders are holding. She’s clever Rose. It’s all I can do to stay ahead of her, assuming I am,” he wryly admitted.

“Okay Doctor. Thanks for the warning. I’ll watch out. Everything else okay?”

“It’s just that ....well,” he cleared his throat nervously.

Jumping in worried about him Rose urged, “Yeah? What is it Doctor, what's wrong?”

“The thing is...” he noted awkwardly, “there’s no sperm left. She exhausted the supply with her tests on it.”

“Doctor is she going to expect you to .....to get a leg over?” Rose asked horrified at the thought the Doctor would be hurt again. “Doctor, you listen to me! If you have to do her to save yourself I want you to do it. Really, I am not going to see it as some kind of betrayal yeah? I’m really not. If you have to do it I’d rather that and you safe than worry about you getting killed ok?” Rose implored.

“Thank you Rose...but, well, there is an alternative.”

Rose thought for a moment until what he was getting at dawned on her and she giggled, “So all what’s called for is a good wank?”

From his position at the bench sitting on a stool, only his back was visible to any surveillance. Lowering his zipper and pulling himself out, he made sure a plastic vial was nearby. He was semi-hard at the thought of Rose as he felt and saw her hands, over their bond. Running them up his thighs, she looked up at him from under the bench, her tongue licking her lips in anticipation. He was always greatly reassured by the effort she made to give him this pleasure. Why would she even want to because it’s not like he expected her to do it? 

Rose, his beautiful, inquisitive girl had wanted to stay with him and travel the stars. She cared for him! And that would have been enough because, although he wanted her, he would never have expected her to want him. Why would she? She made him laugh, spent time with him and she took away his loneliness with her affection and friendship. And then she had kissed him and he had felt her love and desire for him and it had taken a lot of control on his part not to cry. Course that would have been creepy and he never wanted to scare her away. He lavished her with affection and really didn’t expect much in return because he was just so grateful she wanted to be with him at all but to his surprise and delight she gave her all to him too. He was quite sure he would not live long without her simply because his life was worth living because Rose Tyler loved him. Then she had agreed to be his bond mate! In so doing she had given him the ultimate gift, communion between them. He could drink deep at the well of her regard whenever he needed. She had healed him. 

And she was really quite imaginative and ohhhh, he felt and saw her flicking tongue run around the head of his cock and he shivered as sensation ripped through him groaning as her small hand cupped him. Oh he loved this and had only ever experienced it with Rose. His Rose enthusiastically offered him this singular pleasure frequently and he knew she enjoyed giving him this gratification. He never got tired of exploring the hundreds of ways he had developed to make her body and her mind his. He knew how to make her vibrate like a tuning fork and how to touch her til she was desperate for him. And when he caught her looking at him or heard her thoughts of desire he was instantly hard and at her side.

“Ohhh Rose, oh my, this is such a good, most excellent choice. Yessss,” he hissed, his eyes closing. “I love this choice Rose! I do indeed.” He was trembling at the sensations she was creating. “Please Rose, more sucking if you wouldn’t mind.” He wrapped his hand around himself tightly stroking at the same time he felt and saw her wet plump lips around his swollen purple head. He watched in his mind’s eye as her hot lips and tongue caressed, sucked and licked him creating exquisite shivers rippling through the broad, straining-to-burst head of his cock and ricocheting down his spine. He could see her naked breasts and erect nipples and feel them brushing against his thighs. He took in her liquid eyes as she slipped her index finger between his balls to rub his perineum and he stroked faster and faster, until his cum spurted out of him so forcefully his length spasmed as he groaned in exploding release and filled the vial, feeling his hearts thundering.

Rose had orgasmed too and he could feel her leaning against a wall panting, her knickers soaked.

“Oh Rose, there are no words. Thank you luv!” he panted, his adoration and love washing over her filling her with contentment. He was so blessed she had bonded with him. 

“Trust me Doctor it was my pleasure!” she sighed softly.

“I’m going to make you shiver Rose Tyler!”

“Can’t wait Doctor. Luv you and be safe and keep me in the picture.”

Waiting for her orgasmic spasms to subside Rose took a moment to close her eyes and enjoy the pleasure rippling through her body. Gawd that alien knew how to please her! She was on her back spread-eagled on the floor of the access tunnel she was in. Bram had gone on to the room where the captured telepaths were awaiting their liberation. Sighing, she realized she had to get going to play her part in releasing them from captivity. She would signal the Doctor when they were ready to unleash pandemonium. They would need to wait until the telepaths created a way out of the lab for the Doctor. Then the sonic would destroy the quantum thingy and they’d all escape. She had to get a move on. 

As she opened her eyes her heart skipped a beat as she felt a hand seize her ankle. Reacting instantly she kicked down with her other foot only to find it was firmly seized as well. Frantically she looked down the length of her body into the cold, glittering, eyes of the Queen. With an indifferent flick of her hand she broke Rose’s ankle, yanked her closer and reached into her bra and grabbed the sonic, scratching her so badly she bled.

“Well, well,” she drawled, “what do we have here? A telepath perhaps? You are mine now and you are going to serve me well.”


	15. Chapter 15

Rose had been moving through the tunnels to get in position with Bram and the other Prawnians. The plan was to move the telepaths coincident with the Doctor’s signal that he had injected the Queen. The Queen would be momentarily weak and experience high fever for about an hour. She and the others would get the telepaths on board the TARDIS and, unknown to the Doctor, if something went bad, she would use the sonic. She didn’t want to do this with the Doctor in the vicinity of the Queen but it was a fail safe if necessary. Plus with the Queen in a weakened state he could hopefully destroy the amulet. 

Now she’d been caught and lost the sonic. She was furious with herself.

“Rose, Rose!” the Doctor called over their bond, feeling fear and anger from her and pain from her broken ankle, “what’s happened? Are you okay?”

“She found me in the tunnels Doctor. The good news is she needs me for leverage so she won’t kill me and now I’ll be slowing her down. Maybe it’s for the best yeah? I may be able to get her necklace.”

“No!” the Doctor yelled over their bond, “you wait for me Rose Tyler before doing that! I mean it Rose. She”ll kill you to protect the amulet, without a second thought! Her hold on me is wearing off. Please!” he implored.

Feeling his panic and fear for her, Rose felt bad and relented. “Okay Doctor, I’ll wait. Don’t worry okay? But Doctor what about the plan? I’m supposed to help Bram get the captives in the TARDIS,” she asked clearly upset with herself. 

The Doctor reassured her, “Rose, remember Perta will let them in. It was our plan B and Bram knows to proceed without you if you don’t show by their mid-morning hour. It will be fine.”

“Yeah, okay, I guess we have no choice now. Sorry. Listen Doctor I gotta go now and deal with the bitch. I’ll get back to you. Be careful.”

Shielding her thoughts from the Doctor, for fear he would come running when he wasn’t yet free of the Queen’s influence, she turned her attention to her situation. She still had time to fix this before she could be used to coerce the Doctor. He’d already been punished enough. Plus she wasn’t going to tell him about the sonic because she was going to try and get it back. It was her responsibility. She watched the bitch slip it in her belt as she cursed herself for having failed to keep it safe. 

As the Queen dragged her down the access tunnel heedless of the knocking about being inflicted on her broken ankle, she felt the waves of panic and fear rolling off the Doctor. Oh blimey what was she thinking. She couldn’t leave him like this, not knowing. She had to give him some reassurance. 

“Doctor?”

He replied instantly and was back in full panic mode, “Rose, Rose why can’t I hear you luv, please don’t shut me out. I need to know you’re okay.”

“Doctor, I promise I will let you know what’s going on. Please don’t worry!” 

“But then why are you shielding our link Rose?” the Doctor pleaded still not at all convinced.

“Because you’ve gotta job to do Doctor and you need to focus on building that shield and stasis thingy. You’re not going to do that very well if you’re feeling my ankle and frettin’ ‘bout it now are you? I promise I’ll let you know what’s going on so you get to it Mister. I’ll keep this ankle to myself for now ya hear.”

“Rose, wait!” he called.

“Yea?” Rose asked.

“I love you Rose,” he whispered and his declaration was accompanied by the most gentle wave of reassurance and love. It was like a healing balm to her and she truly felt restored like she could run on her broken ankle like a gazelle.

“Wow, that was amazin’. What did you do?” 

“I turned down your pain sensors. I’m sorry Rose but I can’t turn them off. It wouldn’t be safe. You must feel some pain so you’re careful with your ankle, protect it and keep your weight off of it. Otherwise, knowing you Rose Tyler, that ankle will be a mangled wreck and I’d have to fix it,” he whispered gently, marvelling that his precious girl had shielded herself from him not to shut him out but to protect him from the pain she felt so he wouldn’t be distracted!

“Thank you Doctor. I love you. Never forget that yeah? I’ll be in touch for a top up and the latest gossip. I promise.”

“Be safe Sweetheart,” he said morosely as she shielded herself. To him it felt like there would be no light until he felt her safe in his mind once more. He turned to his task eager to finish it hoping he could draw the Queen away from his bond mate.

Rose refocused on getting her limbs to coordinate hoping if she did the Queen would stop dragging and pulling her along hopefully reducing the damage to her ankle. She was startled when the Queen spoke.

“You were having telepathic relations with him,” the Queen spat out.

“I am not a telepath,” Rose replied evenly. “What do you care anyway?”

The Queen whirled around kicking her broken ankle with her foot and radiating fury from her steel grey eyes. “Do not lie to me. You were clearly having telepathic sex with him.”

Leaning against the side of the tunnel favouring her ankle she took in the Queen and thought all the signs suggested she was jealous and that the situation was an opportunity to unnerve the bitch after what she’d done to the Doctor. 

“Here is the thing about sex with the Doctor, there is nothing, not one thing, that’s as good as how he pleases you. He wants me all the time, anywhere, anytime. That man has a powerful appetite and more stamina than a horse. But that’s not all! Mad skills he has, right proper mad skills. He can make you shiver on the edge for hours before he shatters you.” Rose held up her hand saucily signalling she wasn’t finished. 

“But he didn’t make me come telepathically. I only had to think of him and that was enough. But you wouldn’t know that would you? He refused you repeatedly did he not?” 

Rose snickered enjoying the Queen’s rage and knowing she’d pay a price. Sure enough her jaw might as well been dislocated as the royal hand smashed across her face knocking her down. She promised the Doctor she wouldn’t provoke the bitch but sometimes it was a challenge to control her smart mouth.

The Queen yanked her up so forcefully Rose deliberately overcompensated pinwheeling into the bitch and grabbing the amulet as a diversion from what she was really after. The Queen, desperate to grab her amulet away from Rose, didn’t notice the sonic slipping from her belt and then, pushing away from her, Rose raised her arms as though seeking to stabilize herself, her hands flailing near the ceiling of the tunnel until she silently slipped the sonic onto a rivet flange out of sight. Struggling to remain upright she continued to flail for purchase distracting the Queen who impatiently grabbed her and shoved her through the nearest access hatch but not before Rose saw the identifier B12 on the internal hatch door. 

The Queen dropped down into the storage room, still furious, but she didn’t seem to realize she’d lost the sonic. Wanting to keep it that way Rose kept up the distraction groaning out, “Oi, jealous much? Guess I best not mention the fact I’ve had sex with him and you haven’t again! Too bad you can’t kill me yet!”

The Queen glared at her, panting in her anger.

“Ya know ya really gotta learn to control that temper of yours.” Looking around her, Rose asked, “So what’s this place then?”

Eyeing her coldly the Queen snickered, “Let’s see what we can do about that ugly streak of rebellion shall we?” With that she turned and left the small room, locking the door behind her.

Propping herself up against the nearest wall she considered her situation. For the moment the sonic was safe. Hopefully she would have a chance to get Bram to retrieve it and bring it to her. More problematic was her certain knowledge that the Queen had gone to get some of the green secretion so she could enter her mind and program her and she was worried that it would work. She was not a regular telepath and certainly hadn’t been born one but she had swallowed the vortex briefly and somehow she’d been left with a telepathic ability. She didn’t know if the green stuff would work given the difference between her and regular telepaths but no doubt it would be better not to find out.

“Doctor?”

“Rose! I’m here. What’s wrong?”

“I’m fine Doctor. For the moment at least. Queen’s gone to get some green secretion for me. I’m in some kind of small empty room below access hatch B12. Cuz of my ankle I can’t jump to try and reach the hatch and nothing is in here to jump up on. Sad to say Doctor but I may not be myself when next you see me and I’m scared she’ll program me to hurt you!” The stress got through to her and she sniffed but was determined not to cry.

“Rose luv, are you okay?” the Doctor asked his worry evident in his voice.

“Yeah, I’m good, just a little wobble but she’s gone now and whatever you did to my ankle is really helping Doctor. What about you?” Rose asked.

“I have Bram with me and he’s got some good news.”

“Hold up, I thought you were sealed in the lab?” Rose asked puzzled.

“Yes so did I, he replied sheepishly. “I missed the perception filter over the hatch Rose.”

“Well, that’s understandable, not like you didn’t have a few things on your mind Doctor! So let’s hear it Bram. I could sure use some good news.”

“Rose,” Bram said, connected mentally to the Doctor and through him to Rose, “as a precaution, we swapped all the stored green secretions with the babies secretions but we dyed it from pink to green. Remember the pink secretions only work on non-telepaths. She won’t be able to get in your mind. It was the best way to make sure she couldn’t reinforce the telepaths.”

“Bram you are brilliant! If I was there I would kiss you!” The Doctor smiled watching Bram’s fleshy eyebrows shoot upwards which was the equivalent of blushing a deep red for a Prawnian. Rose could feel the Doctor’s amusement. 

“Bram, could you get someone to go to hatch B12. On the ledge I left a device I stole from the Queen and it’s the ticket to saving all of us from her. Doctor, how are you doing with your tasks and are there any changes in timing I should know?”

“What did you take from her Rose? You promised you wouldn’t take the amulet!” 

“I didn’t Doctor.” Rose decided it was time to test the Doctor. Was the Queen’s hold on him truly fading? Bracing herself for disappointment she grimly asked, “Doctor, remember in the TARDIS you said we needed a silver, pen-like device to eliminate the Queen’s hold on this place?” Rose held her breath, hoping against hope.

In the lab the Doctor was standing beside a three and a half foot grub holding his grabber when he leapt up and punched the air yelling, “The sonic screwdriver you have it? I remember Rose! I remember!” 

Close to crying in relief, Rose felt the tension she hadn’t been aware of drain from her body now that she didn’t have to keep secrets from the Doctor anymore. Sensing her relief and understanding the burden she’d carried what with having to keep it together and hide things from him not to mention suffering the horror of rape alone and not being able to count on her bond mate. The Doctor was both ashamed of himself and his weakness and grateful to her for her steadfast strength. Rose understood how he felt reminding him it wasn’t his fault and that nothing more needed to be said. It was time to get on. 

Rose changed the subject and the Doctor reconnected Bram into the conversation.

“Doctor I thought you were under surveillance. What about Bram being there?”

Bram explained, “Those watching are free and will not report anything to the enemy. That said, we are standing under the access hatch, the one blind spot from surveillance. Since the Queen could be watching at any point, the Doctor must not be out of the frame for long so I will leave now and retrieve this device. The telepaths will be disconnected within an hour of mid-morning. If I can free you before then Rose, I will.”

“Doctor, what about the sonic? Don’t you need it? You know the anagram translation right?”

“I do Rose, but I can’t take a chance any remaining programming would kick in. I still need you to do the deed so Bram will get it to you Luv. It will destroy both the quantum structure and the amulet. If I am able to overcome the programming I will destroy the amulet just to be on the safe side.” Everyone signalled agreement and the Doctor lifted Bram up into the access hatch. 

Might as well make it look good thought the Doctor, withdrawing some parts from his pocket, as he stepped back into surveillance range at the precise moment the Queen’s eyes fixed daggers at him.


	16. Chapter 16

What are you doing over there? Why are you not working? she demanded, her voice oddly shrill.

The Doctor wondered what had shaken her. So far she had been haughty, imperious, ominous but never shrill, a human voice he associated with fear and loss of control. He worried she had discovered the sonic missing and would vent her rage on Rose, a rage that would escalate when she found she could not enter Rose’s mind. He needed to calm her and reassure her.

“While waiting for you, I was studying some of the equipment in this lab,” he explained holding up the item he had taken from his pocket. “It is an interest of mine.”

“If you have wasted one minute you shall pay dearly!” 

In a level, toneless voice he informed her, “I am ready. A blood sample from you is all that is required to make the final serum. I have completed the stasis chamber and shield and tested it with successful results. The chromosome string has stopped vibrating and the telepathy gene has been highlighted for transplant to your chromosome string. Now, with a blood sample from you, we test that the reagent successfully attaches the telepathy gene and detaches the junk gene. Assuming it works the final serum will be ready within the hour.”

Mollified by his explanation she studied him closely as he stood patiently with his hands behind his back. Finally she ordered, “Show me!”

“Of course,” the Doctor said, moving the complex equipment into place and slipping his hands into gloves that gave him access to the interior of the stasis chamber. He had built a shield as well, a brilliant piece of engineering, one that required a telepathic signal from him to activate. Only his thoughts could turn the machine on and off.

The Queen watched him unable to fault the speed and efficiency of his movements. In what was an extremely tricky set of minute, delicate movements, that almost always required repetition to get right, he was successful on the first try. The Doctor removed his hands from the gloves and freed up the scanning electron microscope for her to see. He stepped back well out of her way so as to remove himself as a potential threat. Leaning in she saw the chromosome string had stopped vibrating and he had delicately dyed the telepathic gene blue marking it ready for transplant. 

She stood back and nodded. This was the work of a skilled practitioner and not for the first time she saw utility in taking him for her own. She had the distinct impression there was a lot more to him than met the eye. He knew the deep structures of the universe and knew how to use them just like she did. Whatever he called it, it was highly advanced. She knew from the brief exposure to his mind that his ship was vast on the inside.

Rolling up her sleeve, revealing alabaster, blue-veined skin, the Doctor saw the clear evidence of a physiology that was not based on copper nor iron red blood. Interesting but best to speculate on the differences at another time as he turned to ready a syringe. He banded her arm, slapped for a vein and smoothly slipped the needle into a pulsing blue vein and began extracting several vials of her blood.

Noting his professional detachment she sought to unnerve him asking, “How was the new sperm acquired.”

Not giving her the satisfaction he replied neutrally, “Manually.”

She snorted, “No telepathic assistance from the female?”

“She is not a telepath,” he noted as he turned back to the bench to process her blood.  
“What is she to you and look at me when you answer?”

Squaring his shoulders and controlling his features not to mention his temper, he turned to face her, this time his hands casually in his pockets. “We have interests in common such as travelling and exploring. She performs her share of the work necessary to make these pursuits possible. I rely on her point of view and her hospitality towards other life forms. Shall I continue with the work?”

Smiling knowingly the Queen nodded and said, “Proceed!” 

Turning to set the blood in the centrifuge in order to separate the constituent parts he turned back to face the Queen and asked with a formal air, “Do you have any questions about the procedure?”

“Are you sure it will work?” she asked.

Once again he maintained a neutral, dispassionate air as he explained, “Procedurally this is the soundest approach to ensure success. It should work. That said, I do not know your physiology. My best estimate, based on what I do know, is an eighty-seven percent certainty of success.”

She had moved very close to him during his explanation. Languidly running her finger down his cheek and over his bottom lip, she observed his eyes which remained distant and neutral. He was skilled at controlling his responses she thought and, therefore, could not be underestimated.

“The odds are acceptable. What side effects will there be and how long before I am telepathic?” she whispered in his ear.

Gobsmacked that she thought he would in any way, in any universe, find her awkward, embarrassing attempt to seduce him attractive, he struggled to maintain a dispassionate stance. What he really wanted to do was throw her across the room in revulsion, and in retribution for what she’d done to him. She was not fit to kiss Rose’s feet.

His voice cold and devoid of emotion, he droned out, “Within half an hour of injection you will feel slightly faint and develop a low grade fever. You appear healthy so my best guess is the fever should last for a couple of hours at the most. As for the telepathy it should be evident within 24 hours and increase in strength over the next 48 hours.”

Fixing him with her steely eyes she rubbed against him murmuring, “That is more or less what I expected.” She placed small kisses up and down his neck causing him to shiver in revulsion. The Queen laughed in exaltation mistaking his reaction for desire. 

“Nevertheless, I feel it best to have some additional protection. I think the female should witness my birth as a telepath and our joining in telepathic communion. I will return shortly with her and you will cooperate or you will not enjoy the consequences. Have my injection ready for my inspection.”

##############################

Having found the device Rose and the Doctor needed, Bram stood by hatch B12. Just as he was about to snick open the hatch and get the device to Rose, he heard the door to the room she was in slam open and he shrank back, carefully clutching this thing the Doctor had called the sonic. He dare not make a sound for fear he would be captured. They had all agreed their first priority was to rescue the captive telepaths and he was honour bound to follow the plan which he hoped would cause a diversion Rose and the Doctor could use to advantage. Still, once he got things in motion he would race through the tunnels and get the device to these noble friends who were risking their lives to help his people. No matter the cost he would not abandon them. 

Dragging Rose down the hallway just fast enough that she couldn’t favour her broken ankle, the Queen grinned confident of her mastery of the situation. She had shackled the female’s hands together behind her back and collared her neck with a chain to maximize her difficulty walking. Soon she would be telepathically fashioned into her handmaiden. Nothing would stop her gloating victory over this inferior female not to mention what she had planned for the the male. For him she had a surprise in store. He would soon be hers and this female would watch as he willingly consummated their new physical and mental communion.

Deposited in the Queen’s bedchamber and chained to the wall, Rose felt she could be forgiven a rising feeling of dread. As the Queen left the chamber Rose mentally reached for the Doctor.

“I’m here Rose. You okay?”

“Just a heads up Doctor. She’s headin’ your way. Bram wasn’t quite fast enough so I didn’t get the sonic but I know he’ll get it to us as soon as he can. I’m okay but for reasons I don’t want to think about I’ve been moved to her bedchamber in chains. She’s a proper nutter Doctor. You be careful yeah?”

“I will Rose and you are right about her. Who knows how long she was in the void and whether that’s what’s driven her mad or maybe the centuries of wielding unfettered power did it before she got offed by the Eternals. Either or both, one thing is for sure. She’s coming here for an injection but she’ll have some kind of countermeasure ready. All I can do is try and get the amulet and hope to stay ahead of her moves. What worries me is the high likelihood that the amulet under her clothes is a decoy.”

“Yeah, it’s like you said Doctor, she’s all about countermeasures and illusions. Would she have it on her or could it be located somewhere else like here in her bedchamber, maybe.”

“I don’t think she could conjure its power if it wasn’t close to her and just as the amulet under her clothes is probably a decoy, I doubt her headdress or belt would be the place either. Too obvious.”

“Ten quid it’s hidden in her hair. Have you noticed how she’s always tossin’ it around, like she wants you to notice it. What’s that expression? Yeah, yeah, hidden in plain sight. Besides being completely bonkers she’s vain and show offy. And another thing Doctor, she is insanely jealous ‘bout you turnin’ her down. She’s got plans for you and wants to rub my nose in it. You gotta be careful.”

“I will. I have a few tricks of my own. See you soon. She’s here luv.”

This time Rose did not shut herself off from the Doctor’s mind. She hoped her quiet hum in the back of his mind would provide reassurance. Thanks to him her ankle pain had been reduced despite the beating it had taken on the trek to the Queen’s bedchamber. She hoped the ache it was producing wouldn’t distract, just keep him focused. 

Bram and his people had carefully planned the movement of the telepaths. With tag teams of Prawnians keeping an eye on where the Queen was and then feeding the information to Bram, they began disconnecting the telepaths responsible for maintaining illusions and power to areas of the complex not being used by the Queen. They had disconnected the alarms that automatically sounded when one of the telepaths died in their labour. Thus, unknown to the Queen dozens of telepaths had been moved into the TARDIS, one by one, on wheeled trolleys. Perta had placed all the babies in the zero gravity room while the operation was underway. The Doctor had left instructions for the care of each telepath and organized their food into boxes based on their species. A picture of the species matching each box was on each lid. Gradually the complex was disappearing as the telepaths were disconnected.

Several of the newer, stronger telepaths wanted to remain to the last to ensure the Queen remained unaware of what was happening. When the time was right the diversion would be launched. Then they would unhook the remaining telepaths causing most of the edifice to disappear. Bram would trigger every alarm he could find and the Queen would race from her bedchamber to restore order. By then Bram would be near Rose and the Doctor and give them the sonic. He hoped they were okay in the meantime because it would be awhile yet given the time it would take to safely transport the remaining telepaths.

Satisfying herself the injection did not include a biochemical threat, the Queen had allowed the Doctor to inject her with the serum he’d prepared. At her direction he’d followed her to her bedchamber dreading what awaited him there. They were trying to buy time for the rescue of the enslaved telepaths and that cast them in the role of the Queen’s playthings . He was worried the time they still had left to keep her distracted might involve some unpleasant activities. Although unspoken between them, both Rose and the Doctor knew this. While the injection she had received contained a surprise he had engineered, it would take hours to manifest. That left him and Rose to cope with her sadistic parlour games while trying to find the amulet or until the diversion alarms sounded, whichever came first.

As the Doctor entered the bedroom and found Rose’s eyes he gasped as the Queen plunged a syringe into his arm. As his physiology raced to identify what the poison was, he slumped against the wall, closing his eyes.

“Rose, Rose,” he whispered in her mind, “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry!”

Rose crawled forward to the limits of her chain. No joy. She couldn’t reach him.

“Doctor, Doctor,” she called in his mind, “what is it? Can you fight it?” She was really scared. She loved this man. Her heart pounded with fear.

“Trying to fight...too strong. Rose please don’t blame me, please don’t hate me!”

“Doctor,” Rose’s anguish clear as her chains rattled in her struggle to reach him. “Of course I forgive you Doctor. It’s not your fault. What is it Doctor?” 

“It’s an aphrodisiac Rose, powerful....trying to fight it. Forgive me Rose.”

“Whatever happens Doctor, I forgive you and love you.”

The Queen reached to him, cupping his chin. “Come my pretty, come and please me with all your skill!”


	17. Chapter 17

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I do hope you judge the Queen’s comeuppance satisfactory.

His hearts were racing, blood pounding in his ears while his systems raced to block the chemicals from reaching receptors. The mere brush of rustling silk against his cheek from the robe the Queen had donned assaulted his senses as sensation snaked up his spine and he shivered in its wake. Rose felt his struggle to stem the wash of chemicals and felt his fear as he realized it was a losing battle. Staying quiet in his mind for fear of distracting him, metaphorically she wept for him. She felt his dread that he would lose her when she saw the depravity he would be driven to and when she understood he was too weak to stem the tide. 

The Queen approached ripping his shirt open, pulling his t-shirt up and aggressively running her nails up his taut belly. Rose felt his nerve endings sizzle as his hips jerked forward with primitive intent. All his systems were being overwhelmed and soon he would be a rutting animal but with a Time Lord’s strength and stamina and he was afraid, so afraid of what he would do and what he would lose. 

Thus engaged in his private battle, Rose could feel his body giving over to the primal urge, the drumbeat of blood rushing to ready him for sex, but heartbreakingly worse, she felt his self loathing at his lack of control. Naturally she wanted to sooth him and tell him it was okay and not his fault, and that she would always love him. But Rose knew she would not be heard in his current state and it would only lead him to berate himself worse when the storm abated. Any aid she could offer would come from distracting the Queen and reassuring him she held him blameless after this nightmare was over. 

Unbuckling his belt and lowering his zipper the Queen took him in hand and Rose felt his painful erection as his battle failed and his ability to reason crumbled into a primal growl. The bitch led him to the bed where she’d tortured him, but he was unaware of anything other than the driving need to thrust. Rose knew how hard he’d battled and she was furious at the crushing injustice of this Herkoven’s casual cruelty.

Her silken robe billowing behind her, revealing her pasty white limbs riddled with blue veins, Rose watched as the Queen pushed the Doctor down on her bed and scrambled up on top of him, taking him in hand and positioning to impale herself on him.

“Oi,” Rose casually called out, nonchalantly examining her nails with great interest, “do you consider this winning? You never really win do ya? Nahhh, ya have to drug and poison him to get him to fuck you. And why is that I have to ask? Because you are so butt ugly he wouldn’t look at you twice.”

Curiously the Doctor, hearing her voice, turned his head towards her. That small movement inspired a crystal-clear jewel of a memory for Rose. When the Doctor entered a room alone he always looked first to find her eyes. This sweet remembrance was shattered by the Herkoven slapping him hard to force his attention back to her. He reacted to her abuse with primal masculine instincts using his superior strength to flip her, lifting her robe and pulling her ass up and over to the edge of the bed. The tendons in his neck were taut and his arms were vibrating with the effort required to avoid plunging into her.

Rose looked over the scene as the Queen’s polished steel eyes gleamed at her in triumphant glee. “Yep,” Rose drawled, her chains rattling as she shifted into a casual pose, “you and your butt are ugly. Your butt is white like the slimy underbelly of a dead carp. No wonder he’s having trouble boffin’ ya. Yep, no wonder ya had to drug him you butt ugly witch. You look ridiculous!”

The Queen’s gloating triumph was not going as she had planned. Her win was being dismissed and she was being debased by this slip of a girl. She hurled threats at Rose as the Doctor stood behind her with a painful drug induced erection struggling not to touch her. 

“Ya don’t get it do ya?” Rose sing-songed pointing her finger playfully, “it’s not winnin’ if ya have to drug him. Epic fail that is and here’s the thing. You know it. You know just how pathetic you look.”

Suddenly an idea occurred to Rose. She didn’t know if it would work but maybe, just maybe. As the Queen shrieked threats of certain death, she struggled to get to Rose but was unable to free her ass held firmly in the air by the Doctor. Rose sang the Doctor’s true name loud and clear in his mind and he remembered it and his bond mate. 

He blinked, turning to her and groaned her name out loud, “Rose? My Rose?”

Whispering his name again, she fed him images and made him feel her hands running over his chest and down his thighs, her pillowy lips on his, how she loved feeling his strength lifting her and his cock impaling her as she cried her devotion to him. She made him see and feel her lips wrapped around his quivering cock until he exploded as he stood behind the unfulfilled Queen, his seed dripping over the white cheeks of her ass.

To the Queen her humiliation was both acute and complete. He had ejaculated on her while calling another woman’s name She howled in rage wrenching away from him and scrambling off the bed in a murderous fury heading for Rose, her intent clear. Knowing the encounter was unlikely to go well for her, Rose stood gathering the slack of her chains in her hands. Come what may she wasn’t going down without a fight.

His ejaculation, inspired by Rose and representing yet another way she had saved him, provided a momentary respite from the drug fuelled fire enflaming his bone marrow. His Time Lord brain processed what his senses were telling him. He was now free of the Queen’s planted orders, an interesting side effect of the aphrodisiac she had administered. While the drug would stay with him for some hours yet he had these few minutes of sanity to act, to save the one he loved above all others.

The Queen landed on Rose like a screaming banshee rendering impotent Rose’s attempt to chain bash her. Stumbling under a rain of slaps, scratches, slugs and punches Rose stumbled and fell. Just as she wondered whether she could recover, she felt the weight lifted from her as the Queen was hurled across the room, smashing into the wall and sliding down it in a heap.

Stalking towards her the Doctor lifted her like a rag doll, ripping his fingers through her long white hair. He found the amulet tied and hidden there and he ripped it out as she shrieked in pain. Tossing it over his shoulder to Rose, he raced to guarantee Rose’s safety before he was drawn under by the malevolent drugs in his system. He called the storm. Rose knew he was going to manipulate time, speed it up. Sometimes he slowed time around them, when their bodies were sinuously entwined and he wanted to draw out her climax, especially when he had his mouth and tongue on her most tender parts....

“Rose,” he growled, “stop it!”

Feeling bad she shook her thoughts away knowing they must have been a form of torture to him and she watched her half naked, erect Time Lord conjure the storm. He was so darkly beautiful, his eyes a black gale, his hair curling and whipping in the rising wind. As the room grew dark, and the air began to spin and whistle she saw the linens blow off the bed drawn into the storm now whirling around the room with increasing speed. Objects small and large whipsawed around, crashing into walls and shattering sending shards everywhere. Rose kept her head down watching him at the centre of the howling maelstrom but nothing touched him as he wove time around the fallen, ruined Queen. He lifted her with ease seizing her temples and filling her mind with who he was, what he had done, the horrors, the rise and fall of civilizations, the cruelty and torture, the futility and vanity of it all. He showed her Rose, the girl time loved and blessed, the girl with the golden eyes and golden heart, the girl who saved him and loved him. He forced her mind and body to experience what Rose had felt when he had been forced to rape her. He made her feel his shame and Rose’s love and forgiveness. For the first time in her long life the frightened Queen experienced shame and love and regret. 

Withdrawing from her mind, drawing on the storm swirling around the room, he fixed the Queen in a time bubble, a bubble wherein time was moving faster than normal. She would be so contained until he released her. As the maelstrom gradually diminished, Rose took her chain and smashed the amulet watching the Queen through the shimmering time bubble. Her back arched painfully coincident with the destruction of the amulet. It gave Rose no joy she had been right.

Turning to Rose the Doctor reached her with the key he had taken from the Queen and removed her chains. He tried to move away from her for fear of hurting her with his rising aggression but Rose would not countenance it. She leapt into his arms and whispered joyfully in his ear, “We did it Doctor, everyone is free of her!” For her sake the Doctor tried to push her away.

“Rose, I don’t want to hurt you,” he ground out with considerable effort, his whole body trembling with the effort of controlling himself as the chemical aphrodisiac clawed back into his sensibilities. “I can’t control it Rose, I can’t control myself.”

Looking down at his twitching erection, she unbuckled her belt, unzipped her jeans and stood in front of him slipping off her jeans and knickers. “I’m not leaving you and I want you.” 

She stepped closer as he knelt before her until he caught her scent, his black eyes closing until he gave up resisting and seized the cheeks of her ass pulling her folds to his nose inhaling her heady scent, swaying hypnotically, fully entranced by her. His throat rumbled as he lapped at her, more and more eager, until he pulled her down. Bending her legs and opening them wide he feasted, her scent and taste escalating his trembling need. He held her dewy pink folds open with his fingers to give the tip of his tongue access to her bud of nerves which he teased, flicked and swirled with his tongue. 

He couldn’t open his bond with her because if he felt what she was feeling, he’d explode. When her breath started to hitch and she was begging him not to stop and her inner thighs were shaking, he increased the pressure from his tongue on her engorged bud. With a strangled cry she came and he broke. With a hissing breath he grabbed her up in his arms, lifting her and slamming her against the nearest wall ramming his dripping cock into her wet heat. Acute sensation sizzled from his cock to his brain bursting through his synapses and he thrust again and again filling her beyond full with his rigid, thick length until his trembling thighs, his back and his cock stiffened, his balls drew up and he exploded feeling the ecstasy of Rose’s, tight, hot centre fisting him as she spasmed in release. They slid to the floor still locked together, still clenching and releasing.

After several moments Rose moved first, grabbing his t-shirt and wiping his brow. He rarely perspired and she reckoned it was the poison in his system. She knew he was ashamed at his lack of control and she placed gentle kisses on his cheeks to show him she loved him and held nothing against him. 

“My hearts belong to you Rose Tyler. I’m sorry Rose, l’m so sorry.”

“Hey, hey! This is not your fault. I know this is not what you wanted, that you didn’t want to hurt me but Doctor, you didn’t hurt me. You really didn’t. It’s okay.”

“Of course I didn’t want to hurt you and I was unable to control this drug. But it’s not just that Rose. It’s worse, much worse,” he bent his head in defeat and shame.

“What is it Doctor?” Rose asked fearful that something horrible was going to happen to him. 

He looked at her his features contorted with shame. Quietly he whispered his confession, “I liked having sex like that Rose, I liked the feeling of totally giving myself over to it, over to that pounding need to seize you, to have you.” He paused trying to assess her reaction but she didn’t give anything away so with considerable trepidation he continued with his confession, knowing it was too late to take it back. 

“I didn’t want to control myself with you. I just wanted to give it everything, to take you, make you mine, make you scratch me, make you moan and squirm and call my name, my name Rose. I could have hurt you.” He looked at her with eyes pleading for understanding. “I hold back normally so I don’t scare you. I just...l’m sorry...l will understand if you want to pretend I never said it and we go on as we were.” He hung his head wondering if he had wrecked everything and hurt her.

Rose studied him and budged over beside him. Putting her little hand on his shoulder, she asked, “So this aggression you’re worried about, is it like howling at the moon and giving yourself over to fucking til you drop or is it like hitting, punching, damaging your partner?”

Looking at her with shock he gasped, “I would never willingly hit you or punch you Rose Tyler, never!”

“Well then you don’t have to worry. Howling at the moon sex is good yeah, very good. It’s that feeling of freedom and letting go. You’re supposed to surrender to those feelings, to be all grrr and primitive and just want to fuck, and grind and howl! That’s okay Doctor.....”

“It is?” the Doctor asked, shocked and disbelieving.

Rose knew the Doctor came from a society where sex was frowned on as a weakness and those who indulged in it were considered weak at best and perverts at worst. No wonder it had taken so long for him to want a physical relationship with her. 

“Doctor, on Earth human couples often engage in some very unusual things during sex and it boils down to the comfort of each partner. If they are both comfortable it’s not a problem. And it’s the same with us. You are my bond mate and you are supposed to feel safe to be yourself with me and to tell me what you want. I will always want to please you Doctor,” she explained earnestly.

“Yeah?”

“Yeah. And you know, what we just did, I loved it! I wasn’t afraid for one minute so if what you did has you worried there’s no need. I say bring it on cuz you're gorgeous when you’re all gruff and in charge and it’s kinda us innit? Why wouldn’t we give sex everything we got, it’s not like we don’t do that with everything else yeah?”

“Gorgeous?” he asked, “you think I’m gorgeous?”

Rose crawled away from him affording him a spectacular view of her toned ass. As she looked over her shoulder, full of sass, she saw him lift his head to smell the air for her scent as his eyes followed her naked form, his whole body readying for pursuit.

“I do think you’re gorgeous but sadly you’re too old to catch me!” Rose scrambled away from him knowing it would trigger his instinct to catch and dominate. 

Whether it was the drugs, his relief that Rose accepted his nature or that Rose was thrilled her lover wanted to howl at the moon, he caught her and brought her to ground taking her from behind. Even in his drug induced haze he always pleasured her but now she had given him permission to let loose and howl and he loved it. They coupled many times in many inventive ways. And Rose gave as good as she got as the Doctor found himself holding a golden eyed she wolf in his arms and everyone knew wolves were born to howl. 

In her time bubble the Queen was grateful she couldn’t hear them and by shuffling around she made sure she couldn’t see them. 

Finally the drugs had died back to a level the Doctor could handle and he slept. Uncharacteristically, Rose felt invigorated though her body was tired and sore but she was so happy for them and their new and stronger level of intimacy. She realized the Doctor must have shielded his true feelings from her which wasn’t easy to do given their bonded state but she was reassured by the fact he was essentially honest and honourable. He didn’t want to keep secrets from her. He just needed to do things in his own time, especially when it came to admissions of what he wanted. She showered and got dressed expecting Bram at any moment.


	18. Chapter 18

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoyed my story.

It turned out that Bram had quietly snicked open the access hatch to the Queen’s chamber four different times but each time the Doctor and Rose had been vigorously interacting with each other and he was reluctant to interrupt their private time. He knew the tool he held clutched in his grabber was important to them but with the Queen trapped in some sort of bubble he judged it was preferable to wait.

Finally he opened the hatch and saw Rose was dressed and he tapped the sonic against the hatch door to attract her attention. Hobbling over she lifted her hand for the sonic which she tucked in her jeans pocket and then lifted it to Bram to initiate telepathic conversation.

“Hi Bram, is everyone safe? Have the telepaths been moved to the TARDIS?”

“All is well Rose. We were afraid for you when you didn’t come. Some of the telepaths stayed behind hoping to help with a diversion. Later when I realized the Doctor had captured the Queen we got the last of them to safety. What is your status?” Bram asked.

“Oh that’s wonderful news Bram. Thank you. We managed to destroy the Queen’s amulet and imprison her. But now with the sonic we can destroy her ability to create another. I’m going to wake the Doctor and we’ll join you to care for the telepaths until they’re well enough to be taken home. We’ll meet you in the TARDIS shortly.”

Bram knew how important Rose had been to their rescue and he knew how alone she’d felt with the Doctor compromised but she had such strength and resourcefulness and she had carried the responsibility without reservation. “Thank you Rose. My kind will never forget what you have done here. You put your life at risk to save us without expectation of gain. Certainly we have very little to give.”

“We couldn’t leave you without help Bram, besides it was a team effort yeah? Now go on then, we’ll be there shortly.”

Rose turned to go and wake the Doctor and when she did, she glanced at the Queen. So shocked was she a high pitched shriek escaped her throat. At her cry and the alarm he felt over their bond the Doctor shot bolt upright from his sleep. 

“Rose, what is it? Are you okay?” he shouted in alarm.

“Doctor, look at her! Look at the Queen!” Her hands had unconsciously covered her mouth in shock and alarm. “What’s happening to her?” Rose whispered in shock.

“Rose, come here luv. I’ll explain.”

Limping towards the bed, her ankle now swollen and sore from lack of remedial care, she tried to hide her pain from the Doctor but he wasn’t buying it. Leaping from the bed and berating himself as he scooped her up, he placed her gently on the bed, fluffing pillows behind her head and placing other pillows under the leg with the broken ankle.

“Rose I am so sorry. Why do you put up with me? I, I was only thinking of myself coupling with you, over and over and not once thinking of your injury. Why didn’t you slap me Rose. You were in pain!” He was beside himself with self recrimination in the face of his neglect of his bond mate. He fussed over her til he spotted the sonic protruding from her pocket, grabbing and using it to assess and repair the break and reduce the swelling. Then he used their bond to reinforce another reduction in the sensitivity of her pain receptors. Racing around the bed, he ripped a reinforced edge off the bed sheet which he wrapped carefully around her foot and ankle.

For her part Rose was happy. She was happy to see him using the sonic again with his usual flare and self assurance. He was free of the Queen and free of her drug. While that drug had driven him to the wildest sex she’d ever had, it had also driven away his last fears that she wouldn’t love him anymore if he let his sexual nature loose. 

Answering him she explained, “Honestly Doctor, with all that was going on I wasn’t really paying attention what with the Queen trying to kill me and you under the influence. Then after you put the Queen in the time bubble, well to be honest my ankle spent most of the time in the air cuz my legs were wrapped around you!” Rose gave the Doctor a lascivious grin. “I believe elevating a broken ankle is good innit?” she grinned.

“Rose Tyler, I should spank you!”

“Maybe later Doctor,” she quipped cheekily waggling her eyebrows as his head snapped up with keen interest. “But for now, what’s happening with the Queen?” 

His Rose was such a wonder she never ceased to amaze him. He would not have survived this without her. She had saved him yet again. If he was honest, she saved him every day and his adoration for her shone from his tender brown eyes as she sat watching him with a soft smile knowing what he had been thinking. 

“Well, I did give the Queen the telepathy she wanted but to do so I had to change her back to what she was eons ago,” he said smiling mysteriously. 

Rose examined him closely her eyebrows furrowed in confusion. “Well then spill Doctor! What did you do.”

“I used Bram’s DNA Rose, not mine.” He waited for the penny to drop.

“You mean,” Rose paused astonished at the implications, “she used to be a Prawnian years ago?” 

“Yep,” he replied popping the ‘p’ clearly pleased with himself. “I couldn’t very well just murder her could I? Although it has to be said any court would have judged it self defence.”

“But Doctor does it mean Bram’s people came from the void? How could this be?”

“In a nutshell, eons ago a faction of Prawnians started genetic manipulation to acquire a humanoid form and abilities like the Carrionites I told you about. They were convinced it was necessary to ensure their survival in a universe where the Carrionites were the predominate predators. The rest of the Prawnians were not interested in a war with the Carrionites for dominance, nor did they crave the ability to conquer others. They remained peaceful although when their brethren evolved rapidly into new beings, calling themselves Herkovens, they almost wiped out the remaining Prawnians in misguided revenge. As for the Herkovens they evolved by modifying the base DNA of the Prawnians and they left their world conquering across the universe until they were banished by the Eternals. All I did was remove the Herkoven elements from the Queen’s already Prawnian baseline DNA. She underestimated my skills and she left me alone to do it.”

Rose’s admiration and pride in her mate were clearly in evidence as she glanced over at the Queen. She whispered to him in astonishment, “She has grabbers Doctor!” 

“You don’t have to whisper Rose,” he said, “she can’t hear you in there, which is a good thing considering the noise we were making last night,” he finished with a saucy wink.

“But Doctor, I can see her. Couldn’t she see us last night?”

“If she had the nerve to watch us I say it was poetic justice wouldn’t you agree?”

“I suppose but I don’t really want to think about it. Won’t she know all that she knew as Queen?”

“As you know, time is moving faster but in reverse in her bubble so that when she devolves to the point where I let her out she will not know of her previous state. Bram and Perta will keep an eye on her and help her reintegrate. For now, I’m going to shower and then we have to get back to wrapping this up okay?” he asked.

Rose nodded glad her foot was propped up on a pillow while she waited for the Doctor. When he emerged later he was his usual jaunty self grabbing his sonic and flipping it into the air, end over end then catching it one-handed and slipping it in his breast pocket. He bent down and scooped her up carrying her back to the TARDIS through the gap in the wall that was now clearly visible because there were no telepaths to maintain the illusion that a wall existed. Luckily it was a short distance and she used the time to fix his wet hair into it’s customary tousled look while he purred his approval.

Perta had done a terrific job ensuring all the telepaths received a proper meal according to what the Doctor had left identified in each meal box. She had help of course from all the other Prawnians. The TARDIS could never really be full up but she hadn’t had this many guests in awhile and she was enjoying it. Her pilot was always dragging home strays. 

It took several days of care and attention before the telepaths were ready to travel. The Doctor was kept hopping diagnosing and treating 78 patients. Most problems stemmed from malnutrition and lack of sleep. For the Doctor it was a joy to have so many telepaths with which to commune. Rose was a big help as always and between the two of them and their attentive care the telepaths had recovered enough to be received and cared for by their family and friends.

During the wait the Doctor found time for the children who were of course utterly taken with him. He visited with the parents and of course with Bram and Perta. Rose accompanied him during these visits and together they enjoyed playing host to a TARDIS full of life. It took two and a half days in the time bubble before the Queen had fully regressed although the Doctor refused to think of it as a regression. In his opinion the Prawnians were far more advanced than the Herkovens and certainly more civilized. Finally the time came to say goodbye to the Prawnians so they could shuttle the telepaths home.

Before they could leave it was time for the babies to exit the TARDIS and the best way to accomplish the task was to make it an adventure, to make the event something they would remember. 

The Prawnians assembled their young two by two, each child had a little red cape that the Doctor had provided. They hopped and whirled as they moved down the corridor all seeking to see their capes furling and billowing. Each baby carried one of the toys the Doctor had provided. As they entered the console room the Doctor stood solemnly at attention saluting as the babies entered. Rose watched the event with amusement from the console bench, both she and the Doctor resplendent in their own long red capes, Rose didn’t have the slightest idea what was going on.

The minute the babies feet touched the metal grid work of the console room they started hopping furiously to hear the sounds the floor made. Then two by two each baby hopped onto one of the Doctor’s plimsolls, which for some reason they found fascinating. Standing on his feet each baby hugged one of his long legs maintaining a firm hold on their toys. Touching their heads in what looked like a blessing of sorts the babies hopped off his plimsolls while the parents herded them out the TARDIS doors as the next duo of babies hopped up on his plimsolls. 

Eventually all the babies and their parents were assembled outside in a circle. Grabbing Rose by the hand they left the ship and entered the circle. Holding hands in the gathering twilight, their capes captured by the breeze the Doctor pointed his sonic upwards on setting 1756 and activated it. 

Rose yelled out, “Bells Pound.” 

Together they shouted the anagram’s translation, “Spellbound!” 

Coincident with their shout the sky lit up with bursting sparkles signalling the death of the quantum entrapment. But the Doctor had a further surprise! He changed the sonic setting and the sky lit up with fireworks. Not wanting to be left out of the festivities the TARDIS spewed forth her own light and sound show through her exterior lamplight. The show had the desired effect on the babies and their parents with everyone in awe of the magical display. It was time for the stuff of legend to slip away as the last explosions of wonder and light sounded through the dark. 

It took the better part of a week to return the telepaths home as the TARDIS shuttled them all over the universe. Now their last trip awaited, a return to Earth to bury Nathaniel. They didn’t know his last name but from his clothes the Doctor determined he lived in the late nineteenth century, which meant he was special in two odd respects. He was human and yet he was a telepath and he had been taken out of his time. It was a mystery that the Doctor knew he couldn’t solve. 

The Doctor found a hillside in England that was remote and would remain undisturbed for a very long time into the future. The site they chose for Nathaniel’s burial was on a high ridge that looked out over a beautiful rolling valley and was the definition of peaceful, resplendent as it was with wildflowers swaying in the scented breeze. Each of them chose a a message they wanted to see on his gravestone. Rose had been surprised that the one the Doctor chose came from the Bible but she thought the message was perfect. The Doctor found an amazing stone that was both beautiful and arched upwards in a flat jagged shard that was inspiring to look at especially after the Doctor had polished the face of it, revealing its iridescent qualities. They buried Nathaniel there marking his place of rest with flowers picked by Rose and the gravestone the Doctor had carefully polished and carved. He and Rose had agreed to the words:

Step softly for a hero named Nathaniel  
lies buried here.

There is no greater love than to lay  
down one’s life for others.  
John 15:13


End file.
